Negroponte to visit Asia next week- paper

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was expected to visit Asia next week to shore up a breakthrough deal with North Korea aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programs in return for aid, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Negroponte, former US intelligence director, would visit China, South Korea and Japan on the first mission in his new post, the newspaper said, citing officials it did not identify.

One official told the paper that Negroponte also planned to add Pyongyang to his itinerary. Others either denied that North Korea was on the itinerary or said such a trip was unlikely at this stage, the newspaper said.

A State Department spokeswoman had no comment on the report.

Negroponte would be the most senior U.S. official to visit Pyongyang since Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 2000.

At six-party talks in Beijing last week, North Korea agreed to seal its main nuclear reactor and the source of its weapons-grade plutonium in return for an initial 50,000 tonnes of fuel or economic aid.

The Bush administration last month abandoned its opposition to bilateral talks with North Korea by allowing chief US negotiator Chris Hill, to engage directly his North Korean counterpart in talks in Berlin.

That led to the breakthrough announced in Beijing on February 13, after nearly 18 months of impasse, Financial Times reported.

REUTERS PDS KN0806