North Korea has finished fueling a long-range missile, moving a key step closer to a test launch, the New York Times reports.
US officials concluded that North Korea had completed the fueling of the Taepodong 2 missile believed capable of reaching the United States after examining satellite images, the Times wrote on its website.
"Fueling a missile is generally considered an irreversible step" toward launch, the Times said.
The paper said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Beijing over the weekend to press Pyongyang to cancel plans to fire the intercontinental ballistic missile.
It also reported that State Department officials had telephoned North Korean delegates at the United Nations in New York to warn against a launch. The direct contact was unusual but one unnamed senior administration official told the paper that "we needed to make sure there was no misunderstanding".
Reports of the imminent test have drawn warnings from the United States, Japan and South Korea, who are concerned that North Korea is pushing forward with its nuclear weapons program amid talks to convince it to give up the weapons.
Japanese officials were quoted overnight as saying that a test was unlikely.
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