The US government would normalise diplomatic relations with North Korea if the isolated nation were to "completely and verifiably eliminate" their nuclear weapons programme, the US secretary of state has said.

Hillary Clinton expressed hope that North Korea would not take any "provocative action" that could further hamper relations with the US.

"The Obama administration will be willing to normalise 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.

She also said she would meet the families of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, cases which sparked global controversy.

Six party talks between North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the US aimed at restricting North Korea's atomic programmes in exchange for economic and diplomatic incentives began in August 2003 but stalled in December 2008.

Rights concerns

Clinton, who will visit Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China on her visit to Asia, also said that she wished  to work with China despite US concerns about its human rights record.

"It is in our interest to work harder to build on areas of common concern and shared opportunities," she said.

Later this month, she added, the United States and China would resume military talks that Beijing suspended last year following US arms sales to Taiwan.

Clinton said she would be using her Asia trip to press improved human rights in China, Tibet, North Korea and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"We will hold ourselves and others accountable as we work to expand human rights
and create a world that respects those rights," she said.

"[This includes a world] where Nobel Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi can live freely in her own country, Where the people of North Korea can freely choose their own leaders, and where Tibetans and all Chinese people can enjoy religious freedom without fear of prosecution," she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's opposition leader has been held under house arrest for more than a decade by the nation's military government despite her party winning national elections in 1990.

Clinton also vowed to help combat the global economic crisis and push for more human rights in Asia on the eve of her first trip to the continent as secretary of state.

Clinton warned that the economic crisis "threatens the Pacific as much as any other region".