China, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States have stressed in Seoul the importance of restarting six-party nuclear talks at an early date, sources with the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei is currently visiting ROK, sources said. He met respectively with ROK Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of the National Security Council Chung Dong-young, and held talks with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Lee Tae-fik, and Deputy Foreign Minister and chief negotiator to the talks Song Min-soon.

Both China and ROK agreed that it is very important to hold next round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue at an early date, sources said.

The two sides also urged every party involved in the talks to carry out earnest consultations over all concerns such as achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and security issue, saying that it is important and beneficial for all parties to conduct bilateral dialogues within the framework of six-party talks, which should be held continuously.

Wu also exchanged views with US top nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill in Seoul, sources said. Both sides deemed the six-party talks an effective channel to achieve a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and hoped the talks would be restarted soon.

Hill, US ambassador to the Republic of Korea and US head delegate to the six-party nuclear talks, said the United States has no hostility towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and it is ready to hold earnest dialogues with Pyongyang within the framework of the six-party talks and discuss in detail any issue the DPRK is concerned with.

Since August 2003, China, the United States, the DPRK, Russia, ROK and Japan have held three rounds of talks in Beijing aimed at peacefully resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang refused to attend the fourth round scheduled for last September, citing hostile US policy.

The DPRK announced on Feb. 10, 2005 that it was suspending participation in the six-party nuclear talks indefinitely and for the first time admitted possessing nuclear arms for self-defense.