Delegates to the six-party talks had finished the agenda for Wednesday's meeting and agreed to meet again Thursday, sources with the Chinese press center said.

 

Although they didn't set the end date for the talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue that had lasted a record nine days, US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said the negotiation was nearing the end.

 

"I think we are really getting to the end of this negotiating process. I am not going to predict it is over today or tomorrow, I just don't know," Hill told reporters after he returned to the hotel.

 

"But, certainly, in terms of the negotiating process, through this week and the past ten days, I think we are getting to the end of this," he said.

 

He said the US had made a series of bilateral consultations, including those with the Japanese delegation and the Chinese delegation in the morning. The US delegation had lunch with the Russian delegation and exchanged views.

 

The six parties are still striving for reaching a consensus, said Japanese delegation head?Kenichiro Sasae Wednesday afternoon.

 

Sasae told reporters the six delegations to the ongoing nuclear talks continued to make revisions to and coordinate their stance on the latest draft of a common document during Wednesday's negotiation, with China as the key coordinator.

 

A series of one-on-one contacts were held Wednesday for negotiators to exchange views on the latest draft common document that is aimed at establishing a framework for future talks on the eventual settlement of the nuclear issue.

 

Earlier reports said a chief delegates' session was planned for Wednesday afternoon, but it was not held, which observers say may indicate the failure to make a "final comment" on the draft common document Hill said the six delegations would make on Wednesday.

 

Hill said he had not been touched with the delegation of North Korea, another major part in the negotiation, on the text Wednesday.

 

The?North Korean?delegation was not reached for comments. But in its first open statement Tuesday afternoon, it admitted differences with the US.

 

North Korean?delegation head Kim Kye-gwan said that his delegation had hours of consultations with the US delegation over past days. "Though there are disagreements between the two, we wish to be able to minimize the differences and achieve a result in the talks," he said.

 

Kim, also vice foreign minister, said, "It is well known that our stance is whether we are going to give up our nuclear weapons and nuclear arms program depends on whether the US will remove its nuclear threat against?North Korea?and build up mutual understanding between our two sides."

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2005)