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WASHINGTON, July 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet North Korea's foreign minister next week at an informal gathering of the six countries working to end Pyongyang's nuclear arms program, the State Department said on Friday.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the gathering on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Singapore would be Rice's first meeting with the North Korean.

"She will attend the informal meeting," he said. Rice will not hold bilateral talks, he added.

The gathering of ministers of the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States would not involve negotiations or produce any kind of statements but would "review where the six-party process is," McCormack added.

The United States views such meetings as "useful for the diplomacy," McCormack said.

Last month, North Korea released a long-delayed accounting of its nuclear programs and the United States responded by moving to take Pyongyang off of a State Department terrorism blacklist and to ease some U.S. trade sanctions.

"The process is moving in the right direction, based on action for action," McCormack said of complex negotiations that began in 2003 aimed at disarming the communist state in return for energy and economic aid and better diplomatic relations. (Reporting by Paul Eckert and Sue Pleming)

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