The United States hopes North Korea to take "concrete actions" in the forthcoming round of six-party talk, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Monday.

"We would hope and it is our desire to make progress in terms of parties committing at this round to concrete actions and then quickly thereafter following through on these commitments," McCormack said at a news briefing.

The six-party talks, involving North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, is due to resume in Beijing, China on Dec. 18 after its last session in November 2005.

North Korea agreed in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons at the September 2005 round of talks but boycotted the meeting following US financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.

Washington has been pressing Pyongyang to halt the operations of its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon and accept inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency but the latter demands the former lift first its financial sanctions as a show of good faith.

McCormack said there was a possibility of top US negotiator Christopher Hill meeting with his North Korea counterpart ahead of the talks.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006)