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

For the talks, a news center set up by host country China will go into operation Tuesday morning in the Beijing International Hotel on Chang'an street in downtown Beijing.

The center consists of working rooms and a hall with a capacity of 200 people for news briefings, Foreign Ministry sources said, adding that it will provide Internet, fax and copy services for the journalists.

Press officials or delegates of the participating parties will be invited to the news center to give information about the talks, the sources said.

But the schedule for news briefings depends on the situation of the talks, sources said.

The journalists include about 200 from Japan, 80 from the United States, 60 from the Republic of Korea (ROK) and seven from Russia.

Japan and the ROK have set up an exclusive newsroom for their reporters, sources said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2003)