US still hopes for six-party talks in December

BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters) US envoy Christopher Hill headed to Tokyo today hoping for a December booking for the next round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme, but said that no date had been fixed.

North Korea, the United States and host China agreed yesterday after two days of meetings in Beijing to push for an early resumption of the talks, boycotted by Pyongyang for a year.

''We still hope to get this thing going in December,'' Assistant Secretary of State Hill told reporters in Beijing before flying to Tokyo en route to Washington.

He said the US team, ''working with the Chinese consistently throughout'', had ''shared some ideas'' with the North Koreans.

''We want to make sure they make some progress,'' he said of the talks.

North Korea agreed to return to the talks -- which involve South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia --after its first nuclear test last month triggered UN-backed sanctions.

REUTERS SBA BST0625