China said yesterday it is optimistic another round of six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis will be held in December.

"If everything goes smoothly and differences between the various parties can be narrowed, we are positive there is hope to see the six-party talks within this year," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing.

The first round of talks, held in Beijing in August, brought together the United States, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia. That summit ended with an agreement to meet again, but no date was set.

China hopes a second round can be held "as early as possible," Liu said.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed this issue with US representatives last Thursday and Friday. Dai Bingguo, another Chinese vice foreign minister, met with officials from South Korea Monday and will visit Japan today.

Liu said China and the United States have reached a consensus on peacefully resolving the Korean nuclear issue and pushing six-party talks. They also exchanged views on preparations for the second round of talks. The two sides agreed to maintain contact and said they hope all sides will contribute to an early opening of the talks.

Liu said, China and South Korea reiterated that peacefully resolving the Korean nuclear issue is their common goal and they are willing to push the progress forward.

Liu refused to say when exactly or where the second round would take place. But Chinese officials have begun referring to the meetings as the "Beijing talks."

"China stands ready to work with various parties to make it a reality," Liu said.

The nuclear dispute began a year ago when the United States said North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear program.

North Korea is believed to already have one or two atomic bombs, and it recently said it extracted plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods to build more. It has vacillated about whether it plans to participate in another round of talks with the other five countries.

But China scored a diplomatic victory last month when officials visited Pyongyang and extracted an agreement "in principle" from North Korea to return to the discussions.