CIA to describe North Korea-Syria nuclear ties

CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said, a disclosure that could touch off new resistance to the administration's plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang.

The CIA officials will tell lawmakers that they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to a suspicious installation in Syria that was bombed last year by Israeli warplanes.

Bush Meets North Korean President

Saturday's meeting between Lee Myung-bak and George Bush was the first ever by a South Korean president with a US president at the secluded retreat of Camp David, northwest of Washington.

If Pyongyang makes the statement, the US is expected to ease some sanctions imposed under the US "state sponsors of terrorism" list and the US Trading With the Enemy Act.