US chief negotiator to the fourth-round Korean nuclear issue talks, Christopher Hill, said a lot of progress had been made in the 13-day talks though differences remained in Beijing on Sunday.

"During the last 13 days, we were able to achieve a lot of consensus on some issues, I thought we had made a lot of progress," said Hill after the parties decided to put the negotiation into recess.

"We decided the best thing to do is to put the talks into recess," said Hill.

The fourth round of the six-party talks, which involves China, North Korea, the United States, South Korea, Russia and Japan, failed to come up with a highly-anticipated joint document before a three-week recess was announced.

China, the host of the six-nation talks, issued a chairman's statement Sunday, saying the next phase of the talks will resume in the week beginning Aug. 29 this year, with the exact date to beset through consultations among the six.

Hill attributed the recess to the remaining differences between North Korea and the United States. "We were not able to finish the job, not able to bridge remaining gaps."

However, the US assistant secretary of state was optimistic about a possible joint document in the next stage. "There is real logic to try to reach an agreement, logic to everyone. I'm still hopeful we can automatically arrive at that."

"I think the Chinese draft is an excellent basis for reaching an agreement," said Hill, adding that the Chinese have done what they could do to help achieve the goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"If we can get an agreement at the end of August, quickly thereafter in September we will move to the next stage ...the so-called fifth round of the six-party talks we would anticipate starting at very early fall," Hill said.   

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2005)