Next North Korea nuclear talks December 8

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The next six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program will be held December 8 in China, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday.

The aim of the round would be an agreement on verification of North Korean disarmament steps, Rice told reporters aboard Air Force One. She said she would make no predictions whether a deal would be reached.

That leaves it uncertain whether the talks would be resolved before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

Asked if she was disappointed at the pace of the talks, Rice said: "The North Koreans took 30 years to get a nuclear weapons program. I think it might take more than a couple to unravel it."

The six-party talks include North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

In a deal worked out in 2005, reclusive North Korea agreed to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and a chance to end its international isolation.

Pyongyang, which has tested an atomic device, began to disable some of its nuclear facilities last year but did not hand over a promised list about its nuclear arms program until this summer.

The agreement almost collapsed because the United States was slow in removing North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, saying it first wanted to agree on a procedure to verify Pyongyang's statements about its nuclear program.

The United States took North Korea off the blacklist in October after the two agreed on verification steps that still must be formally ratified by the six-party process.

Rice was speaking as Bush returned from Peru aboard Air Force One from a summit of Asia-Pacific nations.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Writing by Randall Mikkelsen; Editing by John O'Callaghan)