>>> Related Special: Six-party talks

Top Chinese envoy to the six-party talks Wu Dawei said Thursday that the current round of talks had recessed and would restart soon.

Wu made the remarks at a press briefing after a just-concluded chief delegates meeting.

He said in a Chairman's Statement that the parties listened to reports by the five working groups, and conducted discussions on implementing the initial actions and an action plan for the next phase.

The parties agreed that they will continue to advance the process of the six-party talks, and reaffirmed that they will faithfully carry out their commitments in the Sept. 19 joint statement and the Feb. 13 joint document, the statement said.

According to the Feb. 13 deal, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) shall shut down its nuclear facilities while the other parties shall provide emergency energy assistance to it and the shipment will commence within the next 60 days.

The statement said the parties will resume the talks at the earliest opportunity to continue to discuss and formulate an action plan for the next phase.

As for the frozen funds issue, which is a major block for the current round of talks, Wu said the transfer of DPRK's funds is an unexpected problem, and all sides are striving to find a solution.    

The current problem is who will handle the money, he said, adding the Chinese government has to discuss with the Bank of China (BOC) whether the bank will take it.

The BOC has its own concerns and the government should help it solve them, he said.

The United States on March 19 agreed to transfer DPRK's 25 million U.S. dollars frozen at Macao-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA) to a DPRK account at the BOC in Beijing.

Chun Yung Woo, chief negotiator of the Republic of Korea (ROK),told reporters that the funds issue will not impose influence on the parties' implementation of the two joint documents, since knot of the funds issue is in technical sphere instead of political sphere.

The six parties settled the framework of solution to the funds issue during the discussion, but to solve the technical problems would still take time, he said.

A 50-minute chief envoy meeting was held Thursday afternoon, in which the DPRK said it will implement the Feb. 13 deal if the funds issue is solved, Chun said.

US chief delegate Christopher Hill was cautiously optimistic about the prospect, saying the talks process was still on track. However, he wanted to see "much more in-depth discussion in the next phase".

He said he hoped the declaration and disablement of DPRK's nuclear facilities could be done by the end of 2007 and there could be a precise timing on the disablement of the facilities.

"Even with the delay of the technical banking issue, it is our strong view that there is still long schedule to meet all the 60-day requirements," Hill said. He will leave Beijing on Friday.

Hill said he believed all sides could arrange a time schedule for the next round of talks.

Editor: Yan