Related report: Six-party talks - 3rd phase of 5th round

Spokesman of the Chinese delegation Qin Gang speaks to the media at a news briefing of Six-party talks in Beijing, Feb.13, 2007. Qin told a news briefing on early Tuesday morning that the consultation would continue on Tuesday. (Xinhua Photo)  Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The envoys of the six parties involved in the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue worked overnight in a bid to clinch a possible deal, but no agreements announced yet.

    Instead of returning to their hotels, all chief negotiators stayed in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in series of one-on-one and multilateral talks from Monday 10 am to Tuesday 2:30 am, according to Qin Gang, spokesman of the Chinese delegation.

    Qin told a news briefing on early Tuesday morning that the consultation would continue on Tuesday.

    The 16-hour-long bilateral and multilateral consultations are "extraordinary intensive", Qin said.

    The six parties have made their "utmost efforts" and some positive results have been achieved, Qin said, adding that the results needed to be further confirmed.

    He declined to reveal more details, suggesting that more information about the consultations would be available later on Tuesday morning.

    China distributed a final version of the draft for a possible joint document, according to U.S. top negotiator Christopher Hill.He described the text of the draft as "excellent", but it needs to be approved by capitals of the delegations.

    "I think we made a lot of progress. I'm encouraged by this. We might be able to take a real step towards denuclearization", Hill said

    Echoing Hill's comments on the final version of the draft, Russian representative Alexander Losyukov said that the overall text of the draft is good, however differences still remain on some details for further discussion.

    The first version of the draft, circulated on last Thursday, reportedly proposes halting within two months the work at nuclear sites in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, including the Yongbyon reactor, and supplying Pyongyang with alternative energy sources.

    "If the draft is finally adopted by various parties, it is definitely a breakthrough (on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue)",the Russian chief negotiator said.

    Actually the "breakthrough" is almost at hand as the ROK chief negotiator Chun Yung Woo told reporters that the six parties already reached preliminary agreements on the initial steps of the denuclearization process and the energy cooperation with the DPRK.

    "Since the text of the draft still needs final approval from their respective home countries of the six parties, I'm not sure it will come out today or tomorrow", Chun said

    According to Chun, the DPRK side already signaled the green light to the draft and expressed its "basic satisfaction" over the figures mentioned by the draft.

    Japanese negotiator Kenichiro Sasae said that Japan would make serious study on the final version of the draft, saying that the draft is not likely to be 100 percent satisfactory to Japan as the document has to cover the interests of various parties.

    "I have to report the final draft to my country and decide our measures," said Sasae.

    To coordinate differences, China held several rounds of separate bilateral meetings with the DPRK and the United States from Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning. And the DPRK and the United States also held one-on-one meetings, according to the press center.

    Envoys from China, the DPRK, the United States, the ROK, Japan and Russia reconvened the talks on Thursday in Beijing in the wake of a 48-day recess.

    But the talks got blocked by the energy aid to the DPRK after the negotiators held consultations on a Chinese draft, which involves the moves the DPRK will take to abandon its nuclear program in return for economic aid and security guarantee.