The six-party talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula may resume next week, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei said yesterday. Wu, also Chinese delegation head to the fourth round of nuclear talks, is on a four-day tour to Japan beginning Tuesday.

"We are considering September 2," a spokesperson for Japan's Social Democratic Party quoted Wu as saying after a meeting with the party's leader.

The spokesperson said Wu did not elaborate on whether the US or North Korea had agreed to the date.

The six nations -- China, Japan, Russia, the US, South and North Korea -- failed to hammer out a joint document aimed at getting the North to abandon its nuclear programs during the latest round of talks, which began in late July in Beijing and is now in recess, due to differences between Pyongyang and Washington.

Wu met Japanese Foreign Ministry officials on Wednesday, including Japan's top negotiator at the six-party talks, Kenichiro Sasae.

The discussions centered on North Korea's nuclear programs, the timing and agenda of the next round of meetings, and relations between North Korea and Japan.

(China Daily August 26, 2005)