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North Korea and the United States will hold talks this week on efforts to resolve the nuclear crisis in a meeting crucial to President Bush's goal of leaving a major foreign policy legacy before his term expires.

The talks to be held in Singapore on Tuesday between U.S.

negotiator Christopher Hill and his counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan, raise hopes that the six-way talks on the nuclear crisis will soon be restarted after several months of hiatus.

While the State Department cautioned the media against expecting too much, diplomats here were cautiously optimistic.

"We do not anticipate that there will be any final resolution," said department spokesman Tom Casey.

"I am sure that will include a variety of topics, including some bilateral ones, but I am sure he will also use that as an opportunity to provide a readout of the discussions that he will have had previously with Kim Kye-gwan." He would not go into details.

South Korean Foreign Ministry officials were upbeat about a breakthrough in the Hill-Kim meeting this week, which will focus on the declaration issue.

Pyongyang was required to submit a full list of its nuclear activity by the end of last year under an aid-for-denuclearization deal. The North claims it provided the list several months ago, but the U.S. says it was just "research material" that failed to address suspicions over a uranium-enrichment program and proliferation to Syria.

The U.S. says it has evidence substantiating the allegations after tracing the North's purchase of centrifuges from Pakistan and aluminum tubes from Russia. The U.S. also has a list of North Korean nuclear experts who played a role in transferring related technology to Syria, according to media reports.

North Korea has reportedly agreed to include indirect explanations about the suspicions in the declaration, but details, including wording, have yet to be fine-tuned.

Hill and Kim came close to an agreement when they met in Geneva last month, but North Korea changed its mind at the last minute, refusing Washington's proposal given by Hill, according to sources.

"We have to see what answer Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan will bring this time," a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said. "But there are expectations that he will bring an answer acceptable to the U.S., given he comes way down to Singapore for talks despite the firm U.S. stance that it will have the next meeting with North Korea only to strike a deal, not to have further negotiations."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, expected the new round of six-way talks to be resumed as early as this month, should the Singapore meeting produce a deal. Other parties include China, Russia, and Japan.

Hill is scheduled to fly to Beijing for discussions with Chinese officials on the issue after talks with the North Korean envoy. China, host of the six-way talks, proposes a date to each party before convening a formal negotiation session.

The results of the Hill-Kim meeting are also likely to affect the tone of the comments by U.S. President Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in their Washington summit, to be held from April 18-19.

Should it fail to produce a significant outcome, the presidents are expected to put strong verbal pressure on North Korea, with voices of hawkish U.S. officials to grow.

Bush wants to resolve the nuclear issue before his tenure ends early next year, according to Hill.

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap)