Bush offers North Korea peace treaty if disarms

By Caren Bohan and Matt Spetalnick

SYDNEY (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday the United States would consider a peace treaty with North Korea if it gave up its nuclear weapons programme, with an inspection of plants to be disabled to start on September 11.

Bush offered the possibility of a treaty at a meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun that appeared awkward and tense on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Bush told reporters he would offer a new "security arrangement" for the Korean peninsula if North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il followed through with promises to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

But Roh seemed concerned that the comment did not go far enough in making clear this meant a permanent agreement to replace the fraying truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The truce has left the two Koreas, divided by a heavily militarised frontier, technically at war.

Roh leaned over in his chair to prod Bush to be "a little clearer".

"We're looking forward to the day when we can end the Korean War. That will happen when Kim Jong-il verifiably dismantles his weapons programme," a visibly annoyed Bush finally said.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman for China, which fought along side the North in the Korean War and was a party to the original ceasefire, said Roh had raised the issue in a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier in the day and Beijing had a "positive attitude" toward the prospect of a truce.