A senior U.S. official said here on Monday that last week talks between officials of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have laid "solid basis" for progress at next six-party talks.

The three-day meeting was "a good round of consultations," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a regular news briefing.

"That certainly is positive," McCormack said, adding the United States is expecting to realize some of that concrete progress in the next round of six-party nuclear disarmament talk.

The spokesman declined to predict when the next round of six- party talks would begin.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Kim Kye- Gwan, top nuclear negotiator from the DPRK, met in Berlin, Germany over the resumption of the six-party talks on Jan. 16-18. Hill described the talks as useful and productive.

The six-party talks involve China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia.

During the fifth round of the talks in September 2005, the DPRK signed a statement agreeing to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees from the United States and other countries. However, the DPRK refused to return to the talks as a result of U.S. financial sanctions.

The DPRK returned to the talks held in Beijing in December 2006, which failed to make progress.

Source: Xinhua