The United States hopes a new round of six-party talks will be held in Beijing in early 2004 in continued diplomatic efforts to tackle the crisis arising from Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear program, the State Department said Monday. 

With year-end holidays approaching, "it was technically not possible to hold it this week, so we're now looking at early in the new year," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

The talks are aimed at securing a verifiable end to the DPRK's nuclear activities in return for multilateral assurances for Pyongyang's security. But they stalled over the sequencing of steps to that end, with the DPRK demanding simultaneous implementation of any such package.

"We call on the North Koreans once again to drop their pre-conditions for talks, and re-state that we are working and are willing to work with the Chinese to produce a productive round," Boucher said.

Earlier in the day, US President George W. Bush told a White House news conference he was pleased with US-Chinese cooperation on the issue and progress made in the six-party dialogue so far.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2003)