A press office set up by host country China for the second round of six-party talks went into operation Monday afternoon in the Diaoyutai Grand Hotel in downtown Beijing.  

Some 500 reporters, from home and abroad, have applied to the Chinese Foreign Ministry to cover the talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue due to start this Wednesday, sources said.

The press office will be open to journalists from 8:00 am every morning during the talks.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2004)