WASHINGTON, Sept 3: The United States has decided to remove North Korea from a list of terrorism-sponsoring states and lift sanctions against the communist country, officials said.

The decision, announced in North Korea on Monday, followed two days of talks between US and North Korean officials in Geneva. The Bush Administration had previously refused to hold one-to-one talks with North Korea.

A US State Department official, when asked to comment on the development, referred this correspondent to see the statement a senior US official made after the talks in Geneva. “We have nothing to add to what Assistant Secretary Christopher Hill said in Geneva,” said the official when asked to confirm or deny North Korea’s claim that the United States is removing it from the terrorism list.

A spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry told reporters in Pyongyang that the talks in Geneva helped Washington in coming to this decision. A transcript posted on the State Department’s official Web site quotes Mr Hill as saying that the two sides did discuss the issue of removing North Korea from the terrorists list.

“We discussed all issues. Of course they are very interested in being de-listed from the terrorism list. So, yes, we did have a discussion about that,” he said.

Asked if the two countries still had differences on removing North Korea form the list, he said: “We had a full discussion on it. I don’t want to characterise whether we had differences or a similarity of views on it, but we had a full discussion. So we understand each other’s views very well on that.”