(Adds China, Australia comments, paragraphs 5-8, 17, 18)

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING, March 15 (Reuters) - The end of a U.S. probe into North Korean banking activities clears the way for progress in scrapping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons, the United States said on Thursday as envoys gathered in Beijing for new negotiations.

Chief U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill said talks were still needed on Banco Delta Asia, the Macau bank where the North's accounts are frozen, but he did not expect this to "pose a stumbling block" to the six-party disarmament talks.

Those talks, which group the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, struck an accord in February by which North Korea would shut its Yongbyon reactor by mid-April in return for energy aid and security pledges.

"I think we have fulfilled what we need to do. Obviously we need some consultations," Hill told reporters of the bank decision. "I'm confident the six-party process will go ahead."

North Korea made no immediate comment on the bank move, but China, which controls the gambling enclave of Macau, said it regretted the Treasury Department's action.

"We express our regret at the United States insisting on using U.S. domestic law to apply a ruling," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.

Any resolution to the Macau banking issue must "be beneficial to promoting progress in the six-party talks" and must "benefit the financial and economic stability of Macau", Qin said.

The bank move was the latest in a burst of diplomacy ahead of a new round of six-party talks set to resume in Beijing on Monday and aimed at implementing the first phase of the disarmament plan before a 60-day deadline.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei was in Beijing on Thursday after visiting North Korea to negotiate the return of IAEA nuclear inspectors to the country. He was expected to brief other diplomats from the six parties.

ElBaradei said that North Korea would be ready to readmit its inspectors for the first time since the North kicked them out in late 2002, but that Pyongyang had made settling the dispute over what Washington has called illicit banking a condition for moving forward with denuclearisation.

MONEY-LAUNDERING

In September 2005, Washington labelled Banco Delta Asia (BDA) a "primary money-laundering concern" that abetted Pyongyang's illicit financial dealings.

As part of its move announced on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury formally barred American banks from dealing with BDA. Hill said that could change if it came under new ownership.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso welcomed the decision. "It should be commended," Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

Pyongyang stunned the world last October with its first nuclear test, drawing widespread condemnation and U.N. sanctions.

But an Australian envoy who visited the reclusive country this week said on Thursday the North Koreans had assured him they were committed to seeing through the Feb. 13 deal.

"I heard nothing in my discussions with the North Korean officials to indicate that they were backtracking from that or seeking to impose new conditions outside of those which have been discussed in the six-party process," diplomat Peter Baxter told a news conference in Beijing.

Hill said North Korea needed to ensure the Yongbyon nuclear complex was kept in a condition that allowed inspectors to assess how much plutonium may have been produced there. (Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck in Beijing and Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo)

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