Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Monday in St. Petersburg for an early resumption of the six-party talks to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

The two presidents made the call when they held talks here on Monday, according to Chinese officials.

During the talks, the two leaders urged various sides to view the issue from the perspective of safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the Northeast Asian region at large, demonstrate flexibility and resume the six-party talks as soon as possible.

The two presidents also urged the parties concerned to make concerted efforts to realize the goal of making the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons through dialogues.

At the luncheon meeting of the outreach session of the G8 summit earlier in the day, Hu elaborated to the world leaders on China's position on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

Hu said that the basic way to resolve the issue is to resume the six-party talks.

Although there are quite a few difficulties, the parties concerned should make unremitting efforts for resuming the talks so as to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, he said.

Source: Xinhua