US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Washington Thursday that the six-party talks currently held in Beijing have so far been positive.

"Our diplomats are hard at work in Beijing today with the North Koreans, the Chinese and the South Koreans, the Japanese and the Russians. And the results of the first two days' meeting are positive," Powell said at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee.

"There is a positive attitude. There is a promising attitude that is emerging from those meetings, and hopefully we can move in the right direction there," Powell said.

However, Powell cautioned tough work may lie ahead.

"Diplomacy tends not to be something that happens overnight. You do not see your successes right away," he said.

At a news briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the six-party talks were "useful."

"As far as what has happened, the delegation that is headed by our assistant secretary for East Asia and Pacific affairs, James Kelly, met with Chinese, Japanese, Russian and North Korean and South Korean delegations today in Beijing. That was the first plenary of the six-party talks. We found the session to be useful," Boucher said.

Boucher also confirmed that the US side spoke directly with the side of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, but he stressed this was just "a normal part of multilateral talks."

The six-party talks on the Korean nuclear issue, after a six-month hiatus, resumed in Beijing on Wednesday and "certain consensus" has been reached among the delegations, although disparities remain.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2004)