South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon is considering meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Washington early next month.

South Korean officials said Saturday that Song hopes to discuss a proposed peace treaty to replace an uneasy armistice that ended the Korean War.

A permanent peace regime on the Korean peninsula is part of ideas being raised by South Korea, the U.S. and other regional players to convince North Korea to disable its nuclear weapons program under a milestone aid-for-denuclearization deal. Other countries involved are China, Japan and Russia.

The idea gained significant momentum when South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il held a landmark summit earlier this month. They promised to work together to arrange a meeting with leaders of "three or four" nations for negotiations on a peace treaty.

North Korea, the U.S. and China were signatories of the 1950-53 Korean War armistice. South Korea didn't sign the cease-fire agreement because it thought that the deal would permanently divide the peninsula at the time.

However, the U.S. has said it could sign a peace treaty only after North Korea completely disables its nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Song said in a forum in Seoul that talks on a peace treaty could start at a time when "visible progress" is made in North Korea's nuclear disablement.