The delegation heads of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of Korean Peninsula held small group meeting Friday noon, a source with the Japanese Embassy to China said.  

Information from different sources indicated that this round of talks will extend at least by one day to Saturday.

The spokeswoman of the US Embassy to China told Xinhua that the US delegation will stay on until the talks end.

Meanwhile, the Japanese delegation issued a notice Friday noon saying that Japan is "making efforts in close collaboration with China for the success of six-party talks."

The delegation rejected an Associated Press (AP) report on Friday morning, which quoted Mitoji Yabunaka, chief negotiator and head of the Japanese delegation, as saying that "The Chinese are unreasonably insisting on a document."

"However, Yabunaka did not say anything like that," the delegation said in the notice.

The six-party talks involve China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.

The first round of talks lasted for three days from Aug. 27 to 29, 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2004)