Chinese FM says six-party talks only option to DPRK nuclear issue

The resolution of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula through the framework of the six-party talks is the only "feasible and correct" option, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Thursday in Washington.

"Actually all the parties who attend the Beijing six-party talks and actually the entire international community have expressed the view that the resolution of the nuclear issue on theKorean peninsula through the six-party talks is the only feasible and correct option," Li told reporters after his working lunch with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Chinese foreign minister said there have emerged "some new complicating factors and new difficulties" concerning the next round of the six-party talks.

"This has required all of us to continue to adopt a more peaceful means to the nuclear issue on the Koran peninsula, through the framework of the six-party talks, because nothing is more precious than peace," he said.

For his part, Powell said he believed the six-party talks framework will work.

"I think that the six-party framework is what we should be concentrating on, and not any other means of dealing with this right now," Powell said.

"I am quite confident that the six-party framework is a framework in which this matter will be dealt with for the foreseeable future because it serves the interests of all parties," Powell said.

The United States said on Wednesday that it was still committedto the six-party process despite that the talks were not taking place this month as scheduled.

"We remain committed to the six-party process. We think that isthe way to move forward," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a news briefing on Wednesday.

"It makes sense to do it that way, it is the way to do it. It has shown that it is a process that can work," Boucher said.

The United States has said that it would like to see another round of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) take place and said it was continuing to work with the other parties to move the six-party process forward and "it is not something we are giving up on."

Three rounds of the six-party talks, hosted by China, have beenheld.