US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said in Beijing Friday there obviously existed "some real difficulties" in the current six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue talks.

"I'm not willing to say that this is going to be an unsuccessful Friday. But obviously, we have some real difficulties ahead of us."

All the five parties involved in the negotiation "have similar interests," said Hill, referring to China, the US, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

The US, South Korea and Japan, in particular, have "very very similar interests" in the six-party talks, added the US assistant secretary of state, who did not comment on North Korea, a major player of the talks.

The US delegation would have one-on-one meetings with South Korean and Japanese delegations Friday to discuss "where the involved parties are and what the way forward is," he told reporters before leaving the hotel.

The six parties resumed the fourth round of the six-party talks in Beijing on Tuesday after a five-week recess. But the negotiation got deadlocked since Wednesday as the North Korean delegation insisted on the country's right to civilian nuclear programs, especially when it demanded a light-water reactor.

The US side rejected the demand, saying it was a non-starter.

The North Korean and US delegations held a 90-minute bilateral meeting Thursday, the second meeting since Tuesday. Neither of the two made immediate comment on the result of the meeting.

A Chinese delegation spokesman said Thursday, "there are still great differences on certain issues (among the six parties)" on the objectives and ways for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

"There is no progress today due to the differences between North Korea and the US," a North Korean delegation spokesman said at its first news briefing Thursday evening.

Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei acknowledged the six-party talks are currently in difficulty, but he struck an optimistic message by saying that the difficulties could be overcome.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2005)