China yesterday confirmed a team of nuclear experts from the United States, China and Russia had left for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"The group, including experts from China, the United States and Russia, will work with the DPRK experts to study the denuclearization arrangements," said Jiang Yu, spokeswoman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, at a regular press conference.

She said China was preparing for the second phase of the sixth round of the six-party talks, but the date for talks had not yet been decided.

The United States and the DPRK held a two-day meeting in Geneva early this month. After the meeting, Hill told a press conference "One thing that we agreed on is that the DPRK will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of 2007."

According to a press communique issued on July 20 at the end of the sixth round of the six-party talks, the next round of talks was due to be held in Beijing in early September.

The six-party talks, including China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Russia, are aimed at resolving the nuclear issue at the Korean peninsular.