By Manny Mogatoi

MANILA, June 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. military will seek to independently verify whether North Korea shuts down a nuclear power plant as part of a disarmament-for-aid deal, Washington's military commander in the Pacific region said on Wednesday.

Admiral Timothy Keating told a news conference in Manila the U.S. military would double-check North Korea's compliance in shutting down the Yongbyon reactor in addition to inspections to be made by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

"We will try to verify the shutdown in support of and in coordination with other agencies, including the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," Keating told reporters.

"You bet, we're going to pay very close attention along with other countries in the six-party talks."

Keating, citing the latest intelligence reports, said the U.S. military had detected activity at Yongbyon "but it was, at that point, not conclusive" whether Pyongyang was shutting down the reactor or transferring some material to other facilities.

"We're going to rely initially on the IAEA inspectors who I believe are in North Korea now," Keating said, adding the last intelligence update he got was 36 hours ago when he was leaving Hawaii for the three-day visit to the Philippines.

The Yongbyon reactor is the source of bomb-grade plutonium for secretive North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test last year.

The disarmament agreement was struck by the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas in February but was stalled by a dispute over about $25 million of North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank.

Pyongyang said this week it had received the money and would begin working on implementing the deal.

The ultimate goal of the six parties is to disable the Yongbyon complex and completely scrap the rest of Pyongyang's nuclear programme in exchange for massive aid, security guarantees and better diplomatic standing.

On Tuesday, Keating inspected U.S. troops helping Filipino soldiers fight a small group of Islamic militants with ties to al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, touring a rebel base captured by troops on the southern island of Jolo.

"There are no plans to increase troop strength in the Philippines," Keating said after he signed an agreement with the Philippine military updating a five-year security plan to step up cooperation in fighting terrorism.

He said the focus of the five-year plan was to defeat the Abu Sayyaf group, but added it could be used to help fight the communist rebels "if the government of the Philippines tells us that they need help on the New People's Army."

The New People's Army is the military wing of the communist rebels.

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