China and India will hold their ninth round of talks on the boundary issue from Wednesday to Thursday in New Delhi, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on Tuesday.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, as special representative from the Chinese side, will lead a delegation to attend the talks, Liu said.

The two sides will continue to discuss a framework on solving the boundary issue according to consensus reached by leaders of the two neighboring countries, said Liu.

China hopes some progress could be made at "the very important meeting", Liu added.

The talks on the boundary issue between special representatives of ministerial level started in New Delhi in October 2003.

During Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to India last November, the two countries signed a joint declaration and vowed to resolve the boundary issue through peaceful means and in a fair, reasonable, mutually acceptable and proactive manner.

The statement proposed that the special representatives complete at an early date the task of finalizing an appropriate framework for a final package settlement covering all sectors of the China-India boundary.

Source: Xinhua