The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency should play a leading role in verifying North Korea's declaration of its nuclear programs, according to a draft of a statement to be issued Thursday by Asia-Pacific nations.

The call follows a meeting in Singapore on Wednesday of the foreign ministers of the six countries involved in talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun.

The IAEA's involvement, if accepted by North Korea's communist government, would give backbone to efforts to permanently strip the North of its nuclear programs.

The statement was drafted by the ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia's biggest annual security conference, comprised of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its 16 partner countries _ including North Korea and the U.S. _ and the European Union.

"The ministers emphasized the importance of the early establishment of an effective verification mechanism with the IAEA playing a leading role," said the draft statement, seen by The Associated Press.

It welcomed the talks Wednesday among the foreign ministers of the six nations involved in the North Korean disarmament talks, which included a brief one-on-one session between Rice and Pak.

It also praised recent progress in the nuclear talks after North Korea submitted a long-delayed list of its nuclear programs in a step toward their eventual dismantlement. The U.S. and other nations don't consider the declaration to be complete, but appear willing to accept it as a starting point subject to verification.

The ministers "welcomed the submission of the declaration by (North Korea) on its nuclear programs and emphasized the need to verify its completeness and correctness," the draft statement said.

Earlier this month, North Korea was given a blueprint detailing how the international community would verify its accounting of its nuclear programs and materials. That proposal calls for intrusive inspections, interviews with scientists and a role for the IAEA.

North Korea raised some preliminary objections but made no formal response to the proposal.

Diplomats had expected North Korea's Pak to present a more complete response to the four-page protocol, but officials said he did not specifically address the document.

They said he referred instead only to the need to verify that all parties have completed their obligations in a landmark agreement last year in which North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear reactor and declare all its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and political concessions.