In Seoul's first public response to Pyongyang's Monday proposal, Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young said stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks must resume before anything else happens.

"A peace treaty... can be discussed only when the six-party talks resume and produce progress in the denuclearising of North Korea," Kim told a press conference.

The White House earlier dismissed the North's call for talks on a treaty to formally end the 1950-53 war before it puts the issue of dismantling its nuclear programme on the table.

"The North Koreans are well aware of what they need to do... to come back to six-party talks in dealing with this issue... that is, give up the idea of a nuclear state on the peninsula," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

"If they're willing to live up to those obligations, then we will make progress in those talks."

North Korea's foreign ministry said Monday it wants better ties with the United States and an end to sanctions before pushing ahead with nuclear disarmament.

"The conclusion of the peace treaty will help terminate the hostile relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US and positively promote the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula at a rapid tempo," it said.

The North also called for sanctions to be lifted before it returns to the six-party talks, which group the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

The North abandoned the talks last April, a month before staging a second nuclear test.

Defence Minister Kim insisted that South Korea be included in negotiating any peace pact to replace the truce which ended the 1950-53 war, in which a US-led United Nations force supported the South and China backed the North.

He said recent peace overtures should not blindfold Seoul in its defence posture against Pyongyang.

"We have seen many cases in history in which North Korea made a peaceful gesture while increasing armed provocations," Kim said. "Our military is fully aware of and ready for any provocations."

But no unusual military movement had been detected in the North, he added.

South Korea has been sceptical of calls for early talks on a peace pact.

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan said last week the North may try to bring the issue into the six-party dialogue to try to stall negotiations on scrapping its nuclear programme.

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