US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will hold talks with visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon Tuesday evening on the six-party talks, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said at a briefing in Washington Tuesday.

"Secretary Rice is getting together with the South Korean foreign minister late this afternoon. I believe the meeting happens around 6:00," McCormack said.

"So this is all part of, within the context of the six-party talks, laying what we hope is the diplomatic groundwork to make progress when the talks resume," he said.

The spokesperson said that the US supports the proposal put forward by South Korea in the six-party talks to address the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

"We thought that the South Korean proposal is a creative way to address North Korean's energy needs, and I expect that the secretary will talk with the foreign minister about that as well as other bilateral issues, US-South Korean bilateral issues and issues related to the six-party talks," he said.

South Korea has said that the North has the right to a peaceful nuclear program, a view in apparent conflict with the US. However, both the US and South Korea have tried to play down any conflict between the two allies.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2005)