Powell told a congressional committee that South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong confirmed to him last week that North Korea had said it was ready to talk for the first time since President George W. Bush assumed power.

Bush has repeatedly voiced suspicion of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, and included the Stalinist state in his "axis of evil" but has nevertheless offered to talk to Pyongyang at "any time, any place," with no preconditions.

"It took the North Koreans a while to absorb our position and reflect on it," Powell told the Senate appropriations committee on foreign operations.

"When the South Korean minister went to Pyongyang recently and was able to restart discussions between North and South, he also came back with a message that the North Koreans might be prepared to begin a dialogue with us again," the top US diplomat said.

"We will be following up on that, we don't have any meetings scheduled yet, but we took serious note of this apparent change in attitude."

Speculation has risen that the US-North Korea stalemate could be easing since South Korean envoy, Lim Dong-Won, visited North Korea earlier this month.

Kim Jong-Il reportedly told Lim he would welcome a visit from the US North Korea envoy Jack Pritchard.

State Department sources have said a meeting between Pritchard and North Korea's United Nations envoy in New York would likely be the first point of contact on any new dialogue.

North Korea maintains a self-declared missile testing moratorium, but Bush accuses Pyongyang of exporting ballistic technology around the world.

The administration of former president Bill Clinton said it fell just short of concluding a deal to end the program when it left office early last year.

The Bush administration's refusal to take up the same kind of accelerated engagement led to a certain frostiness in relations with South Korea's President Kim Dae-Jung, who staked his reputation on coaxing North Korea to the negotiating table.

While hoping for dialogue with North Korea, the Bush team has maintained its firm line towards Pyongyang.

The administration said in March that it would refuse to certify that North Korea was in fact living up to its commitments under a 1994 pact which halted North Korea's nuclear program.

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.

Bush however used his power to grant waivers under the law to allow the Agreed Framework to remain in force in the interests of US security.

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