The demand came as six-way talks aimed at disarming North Korea, a self-declared nuclear power yet to return to the NPT, are scheduled to resume in Beijing early next month.

Rodong Sinmun, the North Korean ruling Workers' Party newspaper which serves as an official mouthpiece, accused the United States of applying "double standards" on North Korea and Israel.

"The US is allowing some countries to go without any trouble even after failing to fulfill their commitments under the NPT, while pressurizing other countries to remain true to it," Rodong said in a commentary.

It accused Washington of having "connived at and even cooperated with Israel in its development and production of nukes" in such an example.

"The DPRK (North Korea) will neither accept nor allow the unjust double standards of the US over the nuclear issue in the future," Rodong said.

"The DPRK demands that the US take measures and treat the former as it does those countries which possess nukes outside the NPT."

Israel has refused to sign up to the NPT while neither confirming nor denying reports that it has some 200 atom bombs.

Since August 2003, North Korea has engaged in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks which also include the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

A new round of talks is set to open in Beijing in early November.

The latest and fourth round ended in September with North Korea agreeing to a statement of principles under which it would give up its nuclear weapons in return for energy and security guarantees.

But shortly after Pyongyang warned it would not dismantle its nuclear arsenal before the United States supplies a light-water reactor to allow it to generate power.

The United States says that Pyongyang must first disarm, before getting incentive bonuses, including the nuclear reactor.

The nuclear crisis flared up in October 2002 after the United States accused North Korea of running a secret uranium-enrichment program.

North Korea denied the claims, but expelled UN nuclear inspectors and withdrew from the NPT. In February this year, Pyongyang admitted having built nuclear weapons.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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