Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and US Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the North Korean (DPRK) nuclear crisis in a Sunday telephone call amid a push to prepare for a new round of six-party talks.

The Foreign Ministry did not announce any agreement on dates for a fourth round of talks. However, at the end of the third round of talks in June, China, the US, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia agreed to try to hold a new round before the end of September, with a working group meeting to precede it.

North Korea has since announced that it cannot participate in working group meetings because of the "hostile" attitude of the United States. Some analysts believe that the country is unlikely to take part in serious negotiations until after the US presidential election in November.

China, the mediator and host of the three rounds of talks held so far, has set out the general goals, direction and method to come to a peaceful resolution. It renewed its efforts to resolve the 22-month-old crisis at the weekend with top-level visits to both Koreas.

Powell and Li also congratulated each other on the respective countries' Olympic medal hauls.

Powell reiterated US support for the one-China policy.

(China Daily, China.org.cn August 31, 2004)