Monday, July 25 2005 14:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: Senior envoys from the United States, Japan and South Korea held crucial bilateral consultations here today (July 25, 2005) in an effort to coordinate their stand at tomorrow's ( July 26, 2005)six-party talks on finding ways to peacefully dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

The US envoy to six-nation talks Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he would hold a rare one-on-one meeting with his North Korean counterpart later in the day.

"We are just trying to get acquainted, review how we see things coming up and compare notes," he said.

Hill also met with the South Korean side headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon. Prior to that, delegations of South Korea had met with that of North Korea led Vice Foreign Minister, Kim Kye-gwan in Beijing yesterday (July 24, 2005).

The South Korean delegation briefed the US side of the result of talks held yesterday between Song and Kim, a diplomatic source told reporters here.

The South Korean and US delegations exchanged views on how to achieve substantial results in the new round of six-party talks and on what agreement that might be reached in the talks.

The meeting between the ROK and the US was aimed at pushing forward for a consensus in the talks that begin tomorrow, said the ROK official.

It is also reported that Hill also met with his Japanese counterpart, Sasae Kenichiro, director general of the Asia and Oceania Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry here today.