WASHINGTON : The United States is hopeful that North Korea will hand over a complete declaration on its nuclear activities in "the not too distant future," a US official said on Tuesday.

The State Department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that US negotiator Christopher Hill had some "good meetings" recently with his Chinese partners in the negotiations to scrap North Korea's nuclear weapons.

China chairs the six-country talks pursuing North Korean disarmament negotiations which were launched in 2003. The other members are the United States, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.

Hill was to return to the United States after he met with South Korean officials on Tuesday in Seoul as part of an intensifying bid to end an impasse over North Korea's failure to declare all its nuclear programs, Casey said.

"We intend to keep working this. I think we're hopeful that we will be able to get a declaration and get the full implementation of the agreement in the not too distant future," Casey said.

The North missed an agreed end-of-2007 deadline for the declaration. It also missed a similar deadline to disable its nuclear facilities, although US officials say this is for technical reasons.

Pyongyang has said it submitted a full list in November. But the US insists it is still waiting for a complete declaration, including a full account of a suspected covert uranium enrichment program and any proliferation moves.

When asked why he was hopeful, Casey replied: "Because diplomats are always hopeful. We're paid to be hopeful."

When told it had been a while since he had used such a word to describe the talks, Casey replied: "I just was looking for a new adjective. Seriously ... I'm not trying to signal anything one way or the other."

Hill - who at the weekend left Beijing without having met a North Korean envoy as he had hoped - said in Hanoi on Monday he hoped the six-party talks could resume this month.

Casey, summing up Hill's briefings to colleagues, said "there is a desire on their (North Korean) part to meet in the not-too-distant future."

And Casey again sounded a positive note.

"The ball game isn't over yet, but we think we're scoring a few runs," Casey said.

Though the North staged its first nuclear test in October 2006, it later returned to six-party talks which are ultimately aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear facilities and formally ending the Korean war of the 1950s. - AFP/de