WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The top U.S. negotiator with North Korea said on Wednesday Pyongyang is not yet ready to provide an accurate description of its nuclear programs but he expects them to do so eventually.

"The basic problem ... is that the DPRK is not yet prepared to provide the complete and correct declaration," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill told reporters, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The U.S. diplomat said he believed the next step in the effort to get North Korea to abandon all its nuclear programs would be "even more difficult."

"I think we will figure out a way through the declaration," he said. "I am much more focused on the next set of problems."

A 2005 accord under which North Korea agreed to abandon all its nuclear weapons and programs in exchange for economic benefits has been bogged down by Pyongyang's failure to produce a declaration of its nuclear programs by the end of last year.

A sticking point of the declaration had been Pyongyang's reluctance to discuss any transfers of nuclear technology to other nations, notably Syria, as well as its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment.

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