¡¡BEIJING, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- No timetable is expected for restarting the six-party talks on DPRK's nuclear issue, and all parties involved are still working for resuming the peace talks, said a Foreign Ministry spokesman on Tuesday. 

    China welcomes recent contacts by the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in New York when the two parties attended an academic conference on northeast Asian security, said the spokesman Liu Jianchao at a regular press briefing. 

    "The contact is helpful to promote understanding between the United States and DPRK," he said.

    "We hope all relevant parties, especially the United States and DPRK, can increase contacts, release more positive signals, sincerely push the peace talks process in a flexible, constructiveand pragmatic way, so as to create a favorable condition for resuming talks at an early date," he said.

    The academic conference, held between June 30 to July 1, was co-hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) and the DPRK Institute of Disarmament and Peace.

    The officials discussed the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula during the meeting, which, according to a press release at the end of the meeting, was the third such conference co-hostedby the two organizations.

    Conference participants agreed that discussions were frank and constructive and they are optimistic that the DPRK will return to the six-party talks.

    By June last year, three rounds of the six-party talks, which involved the DPRK, Republic of Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, had been held.

    To revive the talks, officials from the United States and the DPRK held negotiations last November, December and this May respectively through "New York channel".

    EU leader to visit China

    At the invitation of Chinese government, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of EU Commission, will pay an official visit to China from July 14 to 18, said Liu Jianchao.

    Liu said, it is Barroso's first visit to China as president of EU Commission. During his visit, Premier Wen Jiabao will hold talks with him. The two sides will exchange views on issues of common concern, including EU's recognition of China's full market economy status and the lifting of EU's arms embargo on China.

    Besides Beijing, Barroso will visit Shanghai, Macao and Hong Kong.

    "We welcome Barroso's visit to China, and expect to exchange ideas with him on deepening mutually-beneficial cooperation," Liu said.

    Indonesian President to visit China

    Liu Jianchao also announced that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will pay a state visit to China from July 13 to 16 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

    Liu said that China and Indonesia, as two good neighbors, always enjoy good bilateral relations, withexchanges of high-level visits being more frequent as well as mutual understanding and trust continuously deepening.

    President Hu Jintao made a successful visit to Indonesia April this year. During the visit, Hu sand Susilo signed a joint declaration on strategic partnership between China and Indonesia, pushing the Sino-Indonesian relations to a new high.

    "China is satisfied with the development of Sino-Indonesian relations," Liu said.

    According to the spokesman, bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached 13.48 billion US dollars last year, a recordhigh in history. The first five months of this year has witnessed a bilateral trade volume of 6.7 billion US dollars, up 37 percentyear-on-year.

    The two sides also expanded their cooperation in such fields asscience, technology, culture, military and security, made active civilian exchanges, and maintained close coordination in international and regional affairs, especially in issues concerning promoting regional cooperation and safeguarding interests of developing countries, the spokesman said.

    Liu said that during President Susilo's upcoming visit, Chineseleaders will exchange views with him on expanding the friendly cooperation between the two sides, and a series of documents on economic and trade cooperation will be signed. 

    President Hu's Russia tour fruitful

    President Hu Jintao' visit to Russia is "fruitful", Liu commented.

    "This fruitful visit is conducive for both sides to deepening political trust, to strengthening strategic cooperation, to increasing economic and trade cooperation, to enhancing coordination in international and regional affairs, to further promoting the development of China-Russia strategic partnership ofcooperation," said Liu.

    President Hu paid a state visit to Russia from June 30 to July 3 at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Liu briefed a regular press conference on the general situation of Hu's Russia tour.

    During this visit, the two sides issued a joint statement on a new world order in the 21st century and a joint communique,signed some documents on cooperation in finance, energy and electric power, and decided to hold the Russia year in China in 2006 and the China year in Russia in 2007.

    As to the energy cooperation, the two sides agreed that it is of great importance to enforce bilateral cooperation in the energy field. They decided to further implement the cooperation projects in the fields of oil and natural gas, including the construction of an oil pipeline and joint exploitation of oil fields in both countries.

    The cooperation agreements on oil, natural gas and electric power signed at the summit of Hu and Putin marked a new step in energy cooperation between the two countries, the communique said.     

    According to the agreement reached by the two leaders, before finishing the construction of the oil pipeline, the Russian side promised to provide China with crude oil, transported through railway, of 10 million tons this year and 15 million next year. enditem