Chairman's statement

Wu Dawei, Chinese nuclear envoy to the six-party talks, speaks to reporters on the talks in Beijing March 22, 2007. [Xinhua]

China, the host of the talks issued a statement yesterday, saying "the parties agreed to recess and will resume the talks at the earliest opportunity to continue to discuss and formulate an action plan for the next stage."

Wu did not give a date for resumption of the Six-Party Talks which also involve the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.

"We attempted to solve the banking issue within five days," he said.

Wu said there are difficulties and twists ahead and the six parties are working hard to look for convergence of their interests.

He said that the first session of the sixth round of the talks, which opened on Monday, was successful as the parties listened to reports by the five working groups, and held discussions on implementing the initial actions and an action plan for the next phase.

He said the talks came to a standstill because of technical and procedural factors as well as unexpected issues.

Meanwhile, Chun Yung-woo, chief negotiator of the ROK, told reporters yesterday that the six parties settled the framework of a solution to the funds issue during the discussion, but resolving the technical problems would still take time.

Chief US delegate Christopher Hill was cautiously optimistic about the prospect, saying the talks process was still on track. However, he wanted to see "much more in-depth discussion in the next phase".

He said he hoped the declaration and disablement of the DPRK's nuclear facilities could be done by the end of 2007 and there could be a precise timing on the disablement of the facilities.

Xinhua contributed to the article

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