The talks, involving North and South Korea, the United States, Russia, China and Japan, have been stalled since November when Washington imposed financial sanctions on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

"They are not going to get a better deal two years, three years from now," said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill.

"This is a proposal put together by six countries and the notion that somehow waiting around for two or three years is going to give them some benefit is something that I find hard to understand," he said.

North Korea sought the removal of the sanctions as a precondition for returning to the bargaining table, but the United States has refused to budge.

Pyongyang claims the sanctions breached the spirit of a September 2005 accord under which it agreed to abandon nuclear weapons in return for security, diplomatic and energy aid guarantees.

The deal also set the stage for negotiating a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate and separate forum.

The other five parties are ready to resume negotiations and the onus is now on Pyongyang to take up Beijing's invitation for the next round, Hill said.

"I know all the other parties are prepared but we need all six and to date, (North Korea) has not accepted the invitation of the Chinese government to attend the next session and that is the problem," he said.

Boycotting the talks would only hurt the North Korean economy more, Hill warned.

"They need to get going, opening their economy... They need to start to deal with some problems that have bedeviled them for years," he said.

North Korea's insistence to pursue its nuclear programme has "done a lot of damage to their economy and I think the logic of the situation for them is to get moving on this now."

The New York Times reported last week that top advisers to US President George W. Bush were looking for a new approach on North Korea, perhaps including a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice after the Korean War.

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