China is sounding out other parties of the six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programs about holding an unofficial meeting in July in Shenyang, negotiation sources said Friday.

China, which chairs the six-party talks, has apparently judged that an early resumption of the multilateral talks, stalled since last November, is necessary amid signs Pyongyang is preparing to launch a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile, the sources said.

But whether the proposed meeting of chief delegates to the talks materializes remains uncertain as the positions of North Korea and the United States remain apart, they said.

In an attempt to help break the impasse, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who chairs the talks, discussed the proposal Wednesday, inviting diplomats in Beijing from the other parties to his ministry, the sources said.

The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have tried to defuse tensions arising from Pyongyang's nuclear programs since August 2003, with their fifth and most recent meeting held in November.

Wu has conveyed the proposal to North Korean Ambassador to Beijing Choi Jin Su, according to the sources.

The unofficial meeting was suggested apparently to discuss several ideas that surfaced during a meeting between Chinese and South Korean foreign ministers earlier this week on how to persuade Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table, they said.

At their meeting Tuesday in Beijing, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki Moon agreed to make diplomatic efforts to bring North Korea back to the stalled six-party talks.

The ideas include arranging a meeting between the North and the United States prior to resuming the multilateral talks to press Pyongyang to pledge to return to the talks, the sources said.

The United States says Pyongyang must return to the talks unconditionally.

China had proposed holding unofficial talks when chief delegates to the negotiations gathered for an academic forum in mid-April in Tokyo.

To realize such talks at the end of May, Beijing had sent Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan to Pyongyang as a special envoy, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Il rejected the idea.