Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo hosted a reception in Beijing Tuesday evening in honor of the delegates to the upcoming second round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.  

Addressing the reception on behalf of the Chinese government, Dai said the talks will open Wednesday, and the international community is watching and expecting the talks to yield results.

"We are undertaking a significant yet arduous task," said Dai. "However, where there is a will, there is a way. So long as all sides attach importance to peace and development, hold out ample sincerity and enough patience, and consult constructively and rationally on an equal basis, we will gradually build trust, narrow disparity, expand consensus, and bring the nuclear issue to the track of peaceful solution."

Present at the reception were delegation members of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia, and the five countries' diplomatic envoys in China.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2004)