Washington  - The United States is prepared to normalize relations and sign a peace treaty with North Korea if the Stalinist state abandons its nuclear weapons programme, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.

Clinton, speaking at the Asia Society in New York days ahead of her trip to Asia, said Washington would also provide economic and energy aid to North Korea as long as Pyongyang adhered to a 2006 disarmament agreement.

"If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program, the Obama administration will be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's long-standing armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty, and assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people," Clinton said.

"We continue to hold them to those commitments," she added. (dpa)