Thursday, November 3 2005 19:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: China, host to the six-way talks on the North Korea's nuclear issue, today (Nov 3, 2005) urged other parties to earnestly work for achieving a 'positive result at the fifth round of the parleys scheduled to commence here from November nine.

"If all parties could take commitment to commitment and action to action based on the joint statement reached during the fourth round of talks and earnestly push forward the discussion and agree to take further steps, there would be positive result," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said.

Announcing the date of the fifth round of six-way talks involving the United States, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, Kong said the talks from November nine may be held in phases.

Without elaborating on how long the negotiations would last, Kong said "olding the talks by phases in the new round could have a better result" as the chief negotiators of the six parties might also attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit slated for mid November in Pusan of South Korea.

The experience in the last round of the talks has proved that it is a 'good idea' to hold the talks by phases, he said.

"We hope the participants in the new round of negotiation could have an in-depth exchange of views on the consensus reached in the last round," Kong said.

China hosted the previous four rounds of the talks, the first one being held in August 2003. In the last round, which ended on September 19, the six nations issued a joint statement on a nuclear weapon-free Korean Peninsula under which Pyongyang agreed to give up all nuclear programmes in exchange for security guarantees and energy assistance.

The United States also affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula and has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea with nuclear or conventional weapons, the joint statement says.

The current nuclear row erupted in 2002 when US officials accused North Korea of pushing a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons programme in violation of a 1994 agreement, a claim denied by the North.

As the dispute escalated, North Korea expelled UN nuclear monitors and quit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).