The United States has offered to remove North Korea from its list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

The offer is part of a new proposal Washington made to end the 20-month standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs on the first day of six-nation nuclear talks in Beijing Wednesday.

A U.S. official said that under the plan, aid would follow immediately after a commitment by Pyongyang to dismantle its plutonium and uranium-based atomic weapons programs. The official said the United States would allow other participants of the six-way talks to start providing heavy fuel oil while Washington would offer a "provisional" guarantee not to invade the North.

Under the plan, Washington would also begin direct talks on lifting a number of American economic sanctions, and removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The American proposal is the first significant U.S. overture to North Korea since the Bush administration took office three years ago and subsequently dubbed the communist state a member of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq.