China hopes the dispute over the frozen funds of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would be resolved soon to promote the process of denuclearizing on the Korean Peninsula.

The foreign ministry yesterday said the views of related countries on the technical issue of the DPRK funds are "coming closer". But there are still some specifics that need to be clarified further.

At a regular press briefing, ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said: "We hope such a process is reached soon." Liu's remarks came two days after Pyongyang missed a deadline to shut down its nuclear reactor.

In a statement issued on Friday, the DPRK said it was waiting to confirm that its $25-million fund had been released from a Macao bank before making a move, although Washington and the Macao authorities had said last week that the amount was free to be withdrawn.

Darfur issue

China was "happy" to see the UN, the African Union (AU) and the Sudanese government reach a consensus on Monday on the second phase of a UN support plan for the AU mission in Darfur, Liu said.

The second or "the heavy support phase", Li said, "is an important step forward in the process to resolve the Darfur issue".

The support plan was put forward by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and accepted in principle by the other two parties at their meeting in Addis Ababa on November 16 last year.

Better known as the Annan Plan, it stipulates that the UN gradually increase its logistics, technical and human resources support to the 7,800-strong African peacekeeping force in Darfur until a joint UN-AU force is formed.