Chief negotiators from Japan, the United States and South Korea of the six-party talks over the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue will meet on Monday in Tokyo, Kyodo News said on Sunday.

South Korea's deputy foreign minister Chun Young Woo said so after he met with Kenichiro Sasae, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.

The two delegates to the six-party talks stressed the need to have the North Korea to return to the talks as early as possible, Sasae said.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill is expected to arrive in Japan on Monday for the 17th Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue meeting.

The six-party talks on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, which involves North Korea, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, were last held in November 2005. Several rounds of the six-party talks have taken place in Beijing since August 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2006)