US chief negotiator Christopher Hill arrived in Beijing on Sunday ahead of talks with Chinese officials on resuming the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue at an early date.

According to the US embassy in Beijing, Hill will meet his Chinese counterpart, Vice-Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, later in the afternoon, briefing Wu about his Berlin talks with senior DPRK negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan.

"I will ask him about his thoughts on when we can schedule the next round of six-party talks, because we'd like to do that as soon as possible," Hill told reporters upon arrival at the Beijing airport.

Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed Wu would meet with the US Assistant Secretary of State in the evening but provided no further details.

Prior to his arrival in the Chinese capital, Hill visited Seoul and Tokyo, exchanging views with his respective counterparts there.

Hill told officials in Tokyo that the United States and the DPRK agreed to restart talks at the earliest possible date and strive for concrete progress.

The United States and the DPRK held unique one-on-one talks in Berlin from Tuesday to Thursday last week. Hill described in Seoul his meeting with Kim Kye Gwan in Berlin as "very useful."

The six-party talks involve China, the DPRK, the Republic of Korea (ROK), the United States, Japan and Russia, with the first round held in 2003. At the latest round of talks held in late December in Beijing, the parties failed to make major progress but agreed to have another session.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2007)