On Sunday, diplomats said U.N. inspectors plan to return to North Korea in about a week to help the communist nation dismantle its nuclear program and re-establish a presence that ended when they were expelled five years ago. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the dates _ either July 14 or July 17 _ were tentative.

Before the start of the meeting, Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the United States hoped that inspectors would be able to return to North Korea quickly.

"Following the board's approval, we hope that IAEA inspectors will be able to return quickly to North Korea," Schulte told reporters.

"The shutdown of the facilities at Yongbyon, together with IAEA monitoring and verification, will be an important step toward achieving the common goal of a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons," Schulte said.

While approval is a virtual certainty, the question of funding _ of the North Korea mission and of the agency in general _ is still to be decided.

Diplomats said bankrolling the North Korea mission would cost close to US$5 million (€3.7 million) over two years. The main expenditures are earmarked for shutting down the North's plutonium-producing Yongbyong nuclear facility and post-shutdown monitoring and verification.

The return of the IAEA experts would effectively start the process of ending the North's nuclear program, which _ if carried through _ would eliminate it as a weapons threat.

The Vienna meeting will focus on an IAEA report based on information the agency's deputy director general, Olli Heinonen, compiled after a visit late last month to the Yongbyon facility.

The confidential report, obtained by the AP, said North Korea has agreed to provide IAEA experts with needed technical information, access and other help needed to shut down the Yongbyon reactor and linked facilities.

Four months after test-exploding a nuclear bomb, North Korea pledged in February to shut down and disable the 5-megawatt reactor, capable of producing enough plutonium to produce one nuclear bomb a year, in exchange for economic aid and political concessions. That landmark agreement was the result of talks between North Korea and the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan.

But the country refused for months to act on the promise until it received about US$25 million (€18 million) in funds that were frozen in a Macau bank in a dispute with the U.S. over alleged money-laundering.

Heinonen's visit was the nuclear watchdog's first trip to the Yongbyon reactor since inspectors were expelled from the country in late 2002. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had traveled to North Korea in March but had not visited the facility.

The other issue _ the agency's 2008-2009 budget _ is potentially more contentious. Resistance by Japan and key EU contributors to increase the present €283.6 million (more than US$380 million) figure led to warnings by ElBaradei last month that his agency might not be able to fulfill its mission.

A diplomat told the AP before Monday's meeting that a compromise could be reached, with a tentative agreement to increase the budget by at least 4.2 percent.

That would still be far below the 8.5 percent originally sought by ElBaradei but now would be acceptable to the IAEA chief, diplomats said.

ElBaradei last month told the board that "my colleagues and I cannot sit here and tell you that the agency is able to fulfill its functions if in fact it cannot" under budget constraints limiting its ability to prevent proliferation, monitor nuclear safety and aid developing countries through medical and agricultural programs based on nuclear technology.

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