The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency has urged North Korea to allow the nuclear watchdog full rights to conduct comprehensive nuclear inspections in the communist state.

Mohamed El-Baradei spoke with reporters Thursday after a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in Washington.

El-Baradei said that international inspectors would only return to North Korea with what he called "comprehensive" rights to examine all its atomic programs.

He said IAEA inspectors were handicapped by a 1994 framework agreement that gave them the right to conduct only partial inspections in the Pyongyang area without looking anywhere else. He said inspectors need a robust system whereby they can conduct inspections on short notice, engage in environmental sampling, and do all it takes to make sure that they are not being cheated.

Pyongyang disabled IAEA surveillance devices at the Yongbyon reactor site and expelled IAEA inspectors in December, 2002 after the U.S. and its allies cut off heavy fuel oil supplies to the North for violating the framework agreement to freeze its nuclear activities.