The United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday agreed to continue one-on-one consultations in Beijing during the six-party talks on Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

"The delegations of the United States and the DPRK held a long-time consultations on Thursday morning and agreed to continue consultations," said Qin Gang, spokesman for the Chinese delegation.

The two delegations held the third one-on-one meeting for about three hours on Thursday morning, longer than the previous two bilateral meetings.

The bilateral consultations can move on and parties concerned can carry out consultations in a "tranquil, calm" manner, which makes the talks "deeper and more pragmatic", said Qin.

"The meeting is a progress and also the most important outcome of the talks," said Qin. The open-ended talks also involve China, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan.

The outcome of the DPRK-US bilateral consultations is widely believed to have a major impact on the development of the current round of six-party talks.

One of the important basis for the talks making progress is to increase political trust between the United States and the DPRK and consider reasonable concerns and requirements of all parties involved, said Qin.

The fourth-round six-party talks are characterized by one-on-one consultations, which are not isolated but held within the framework of the six-party talks, said Qin.

China has so far held 12 one-on-one consultations with the other five parties, which entered the third day in Beijing.

The Chinese delegation has held three consultations each with delegations of the United States, the DPRK and Japan respectively, two with the Russian delegation and one with the ROK delegation, said Qin.

According to Qin, the US and ROK delegations also held meetings on Thursday afternoon.The DPRK and Japan, who have yet had direct one-on-one consultations up to now, are said to agree on meeting at proper time.

China, as an active participant, will do anything conducive to pushing for results of the talks, said Qin.

The ongoing fourth round of the six-party talks is moving towards the right direction, said Chinese vice foreign minister Dai Bingguo here Thursday when meeting with the heads of the six delegations.

"They have made frank, in-depth and pragmatic discussions on how to realize a nuclear-weapon-free peninsula and setting an overall goal of the six-party talks through various forms," Dai said.

Describing the nuclear issue very complicated, Dai said it is very natural that related parties have differences and hoped parties concerned could make joint efforts to "catch fish" in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the meeting venue for the six-party talks.

In Chinese words, "Diaoyutai" literally means a fishing terrace where emperors and officials used to go fishing. The venue now has become the focus of the world due to the six-party talks.

Source: Xinhua