BEIJING, March 14 (Reuters) - North Korea said it was willing to implement an agreement to disarm once financial sanctions are lifted, the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was speaking in Beijing after a trip to North Korea which he described as "quite useful".

Washington also said that within 30 days of the February deal at six-party talks it would settle a dispute over North Korean bank accounts frozen in Macau, in southern China, that Washington says had been used to launder illegal earnings for Pyongyang.

"The Macau issue will be resolved as we've promised," U.S. envoy Chris Hill told reporters in Beijing.

AlertNet news is provided by