Tokyo - Top nuclear negotiators from Japan, South Korea and the United States met in Tokyo Thursday to discuss North Korea's denuclearization.

"We have, I think, a real active agenda ahead and we really look forward to getting together, the six parties, and seeing if we can get through this phase, and get on to the next phase and finish this job," chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said.

He discussed how to "press forward with the stalled six-party talks" with his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki before the three-way talks.

Saiki urged the US diplomat to keep North Korea on a list of states sponsors of terrorism until Tokyo and Pyongyang resolve abductions of Japanese citizens, reports said.

Saiki reported outcomes of recent talks between Japan and North Korea to Hill and South Korean representative Kim Sook at a three-way meeting Thursday evening.

North Korea said it would resume investigation of the Japanese abductees' issues last week in Beijing, and Japan decided to list some of its sanctions against Pyongyang.

The three-way meeting with Hill, Kim and Saiki was held after the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said North Korea was expected soon to submit the declaration to China, host of the multilateral talks.

If an acceptable declaration were submitted, Washington would remove North Korea from the list, she said.

Japan's Saiki said, "The real issue here is when the declaration will be submitted and there are things that we need to negotiate among the six nations."

South Korea's Kim said Wednesday that Pyongyang's declaration is expected to be submitted by the end of this month.

Hill was expected to leave for Beijing Friday to meet with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei and to schedule the next round of the six-party talks.

Hill reportedly said the negotiations would not be scheduled before the Group of Eight foreign ministers meet in Kyoto, Japan, on June 26-27. (dpa)