President George W. Bush accepted a recommendation by Secretary of State Colin Powell to withhold for the first time annual certification required by Congress on the 4.6 billion dollar deal, known as the Agreed Framework.

"There is no question the president has concerns, we have not been provided with sufficient information by the North Koreans; concerns remain about their compliance with the Agreed Framework," White House spokesman Are Fleischer said.

"It's a strong message to North Korea that they need to comply with their international obligations and agreements."

Bush has made no secret of his distaste for the Stalinist state and has rejected the engagement strategy of the previous Clinton administration, branding North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq.

He will however use his power to grant waivers under the law in the interests of national security, Fleischer said.

That will permit the United States to continue to abide by its portion of the agreement, which includes funding for heavy fuel oil to make up for the loss of power in reactors Pyongyang shut down.

The Agreed Framework established an international consortium to fund construction of two lightwater reactors (LWR) which produce smaller amounts of weapons grade material, than the heavy plutonium by-product churned out by the previous reactors.

The deal is credited by many observers here with heading off a US-North Korean war but some conservatives want it to be renegotiated or scrapped.

Annual certification is important because the North Koreans must demonstrate their nuclear program is halted definitively before components of the two LWR's are delivered.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the move did not signify that Washington believed North Korea had violated the Agreed Framework, merely that it was not in full compliance with the pact.

"If you don't have sufficient information or have you some concerns, then you may not be able to certify," he said.

A senior US official, speaking earlier on condition of anonymity, said the United States was concerned that North Korea was still not in compliance with an undertaking to account for nuclear material it is suspected of concealing in the 1990s.

Washington is angry that North Korea is not allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to carry out mandated full inspections of its nuclear facility at the Yongbyon research base north of Pyongyang.

The Stalinist state has blocked the inspections, apparently to protest that the timetable for completion of the Agreed Framework, due to end by 2003, is delayed until 2008.

Washington is also unwilling to grant annual certification while it believes that North Korea is funneling missile technology around the globe, in some cases to US adversaries.

Bush aides fear that such weapons could eventually pass into the hands of terrorists.

Administration officials Wednesday briefed the Senate Foreign Relations committee on the issue, said Lynne Weil, spokeswoman for the committee's Democratic majority.

But Committee Chairman Senator Joseph Biden was however still "waiting for credible evidence" that North Korea was in breach of the Agreed Framework, Weil said.

The Bush administration has presided over a steady deterioration of relations with North Korea since taking office last year.

Although senior officials say they are willing to talk to North Korea "any time, any place" no high-level meetings have yet taken place.

The IAEA declined to comment on the Bush administration decision, saying that the Agreed Framework was a bilateral agreement between the United States and North Korea.

But spokeswoman Melissa Fleming in Vienna confirmed that the latest visit by IAEA officials in January had found no change in the status of nuclear material, although the visit was not a full inspection.

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