The United States insisted on Tuesday that it was ready to return to the six-party talks and urged the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to live up to its commitment of participating in the talks.

"All six parties committed to participate in the fourth plenary by the end of this month. They all agreed last June to do that.

And the other five parties, including the United States, certainly remain ready to return to the talks," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a news briefing.

"We would expect the North Koreans to live up to that commitment as well, but it does look like that they have been stalling and that they are -- at this point they have not agreed yet," Boucher said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei met with visiting James Andrew Kelly, US Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, on Monday and said that the two sides hoped to start the fourth round of six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula at an early date.

The fourth round of six-party talks is scheduled to start at the end of this month, according to a chairman statement issued at the third round of talks in June.

China has hosted three rounds of the six-party talks aimed at ending the nuclear confrontation between the DPRK and the United States.