China said conditions for holding a new round of meetings among the chief negotiators to the six-party nuclear talks were maturing, with all parties being positive toward the meeting.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said yesterday at a press conference that China would maintain contact and coordination with the relevant parties and commit itself to push ahead the process and implement the stated commitments.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei met with the heads of the five other parties on Wednesday and all agreed to advance the talks as soon as possible, she said.

Jiang said that both North Korea and the United States had informed China that they had reached a consensus on the relevant issues on the nuclear declaration.

"We all believe this is a positive outcome, which helps to advance the talks. China expresses appreciation of the patient dialogue between North Korea and the United States to address their common concerns," she added.

Disagreement over North Korea's nuclear declaration, which was due by the end of last year, has deadlocked the six-nation nuclear talks.

Washington had accused Pyongyang of having a secret program to enrich uranium for weapons and nuclear proliferation and wanted those issues to be addressed in the declaration. North Korea denied these charges.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill met with North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister, Kim Kye-gwan, on Tuesday in Singapore. Hill said that this meeting had moved the process forward to resolve the disarmament impasse on the Korean Peninsula.