The six-party talks should focus on the denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula, a US senior government official said at a news briefing in Beijing Wednesday.  

The official, who spoke under anonymous condition, said that at the plenary this morning, all the parties concerned discussed the need to focus on the denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula.

"The real efforts are to keep focusing on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the official said.

He said participants were now focusing on agreeing some form of statement as a framework, "a set of agreed principles on the basis of which we can narrow the scope of issues and lay out an eventual schedule for negotiation of an overall agreement."

"We obviously have some differences with them about the sequencing of these issues," he added.

The official said it is not necessary to solve all the issues within the framework of six-party talks. Instead, some of the issues could be solved through bilateral mechanism.

The forth round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue entered the seconded day yesterday. According to the official, delegates from all the parties concerned held a plenary session lasting almost three hours at which they clarified their respective positions. Following the plenary session, the US delegation held bilateral talks with the Chinese, South Korean and Japanese delegations respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2005)