George W. Bush, US president, was yesterday considering a recommendation from his senior officials to remove North Korea from the US terrorism list in spite of Japanese concerns.

The US is considering taking North Korea off the terrorism list after reaching a deal with Pyongyang last week on a mechanism to verify the contents of a nuclear declaration that North Korea provided earlier this year. While the other members of the six-party talks - China, South Korea and Russia - have backed the agreement, Japan has expressed reservations.