Bilateral talks between the US and North Korea in Geneva ended on Sunday with an agreement that Pyongyang would declare and disable all its nuclear facilities by the end of this year.

Speaking after “very good and very substantive talks”, Christopher Hill, US assistant secretary of state, said the timetable would permit full implementation by the end of 2008 of the more extensive six-party September 2005 accord to “denuclearise” the Korean peninsula.