The fourth round of the six-party talks on the Korean nuclear issue will drag on into the 11th day as negotiators remain in disagreements after 10 days of bargaining.

"I can assure you that the talks will enter the 11th day," said Qin Gang, spokesman of the Chinese delegation, at a press briefing on Thursday night.

The Chinese spokesman acknowledged that the negotiators failed to reach agreement on all issues even though the talks are coming close to an end. "There remain differences, and some are quite outstanding," he said.

However, Qin said "there is no sign of a breakdown of the current talks."

He said it was quite common that the participants in the talks had differences during the negotiation, but all the negotiators managed to listen to each other calmly and patiently.

"All parties need to demonstrate flexibility and make more efforts," Qin added.

The six parties had deepened mutual understanding over the past days, which was "the biggest achievement" of the fourth-round talks as compared with the previous three rounds, the spokesman said.

The negotiators had exchanged views on key issues, "which itself is a progress," he added.

He stressed it was not up to China but the attitude of every party to decide whether the talks would come to an end.

The spokesman did not disclose the contents of the draft common document proposed by the Chinese delegation, which all the parties concerned have been discussing over the past few days.

"The common document is not a parameter to judge whether the talks are successful or not," Qin said.

"The six-party talks are a process and there is a long way to go to realize the denulcearization of the Korean Peninsula, which requires unremitting efforts," he noted.

Qin said it would be "going too far" to expect that all the problems related to the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue could be resolved in just a few days.

"We must be neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic," he said.

The six parties have held 72 bilateral consultations since the current round of talks started on July 26, exceeding the total number of bilateral meetings held during the previous three rounds.

Qin said the Chinese delegation had had 42 one-on-one meetings, including 14 consultations with the Untied States, 11 with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), seven with Japan, six with Russia and four with the Republic of Korea (ROK).

It was reported that the DPRK and the United States had held eight one-on-one meetings over the past 10 days.

The two might possibly meet again, said Qin. "All the parties are very patient...they can contact each other at any time and in any form."

Meanwhile, Russian Chief Negotiator Alexander Alexeyev returned to Beijing on Thursday to re-join the talks after being away for five days.

At Beijing's capital international airport, Alexeyev denied the existence of any "crisis" in the ongoing talks and said "we will try our best to make the talks successful."

Alexeyev said the negotiation might still last "one or two days."

The fourth round of the six-party talks, involving China, the DPRK, the United States, the ROK, Russia and Japan, resumed after a delay of 13 months.

All sides are striving to forge a common document in this longest-ever round, which is supposed to set forth basic principles for resolving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

US Chief Negotiator Christopher Hill said on Thursday morning that various parties to the ongoing nuclear talks need to clarify the principles for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"We really need clarity on the principles, it is precisely the clarity that we are seeking. That is so necessary," Hill said.

"Everyone in Washington very much wants to see we reach an agreement, an agreement on principles, so that we can move on," he said.

As the ending date has not yet been decided for the marathon talks, Hill said he would stay "as long as I feel it is useful to be here."

On Thursday afternoon, the DPRK, the ROK and the United States held a one-hour trilateral meeting, discussing the revised draft document.

Song Min-soon, head of the ROK delegation, said the result of the three-way meeting was "neither a breakdown nor an end." But he didn't make any elaboration.

Source: Xinhua