The talks involving top diplomats from South Korea, China and Japan will be held as previously planned despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan last Friday, the foreign ministry in Seoul?said Monday.

Japan, host to the three-way talks, has notified South Korea that it will still hold the talks on Saturday as scheduled, but the meeting will be shortened by one day to a one-day event, foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byung-Je told reporters at a briefing.

The meeting, which will bring together Kim Sung-hwan of South Korea, Yang Jiechi of China and Takeaki Matsumoto of Japan, is expected to center around trilateral cooperation on helping quake- ravaged Japan get back on its feet, according to local reports.

The annual meeting has been held since 2007.