U.S. top negotiator to the six-party talks Christopher Hill said in Beijing Thursday mid-night that he believes the current key thing will be Friday's denuclearization working group meeting which will focus on the details of the principles for the verification mechanism.

"The key thing will be tomorrow when the denuclearization working group meets to actually work out the actual verification protocol," said Hill when returning to hotel from the U.S. embassy in Beijing after Thursday's heads of delegation meeting.

He said the effort to negotiate the actual protocol will be very important, and that is why "we have experts from all six countries to sit there".

He said the first day's meeting did had detailed discussion about the principles, but how those principles actually work will be (discussed) when the denuclearization working group meets, explaining there are "a lot of technical issues there", which should include site visit, documents, interviews, and a few more.

"There will be a lot of details at the denuclearization working group... where technical people will take up," he said, adding his hope that the denuclearization working group can go through this and try to reach an agreement. Hill said the first day's meetings was a good start to the process, adding there were a lot of bilateral meetings, "just about all the six delegations met with their five counterparts".

The heads of delegation meeting had discussion about some details of the monitoring mechanism by which various parties can monitor the obligations and commitments made in the six-party talks, and also had detailed discussion on the principles for the verification regime, said Hill.

He said Friday's meeting will discuss the economic and energy assistance to the DPRK, and also hopefully on the next phase.

He admitted that there are differences between the six parties, but he would not say gaps yet, as the negotiation has not been under way.

"I would say all six delegations really came having done their homework, and have taken this meeting very seriously," he added.

Top negotiators of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue met here on Thursday afternoon for a fresh round of discussions after a nine-month stalemate.

The discussions, which group China, the United States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan, are scheduled to run for three days in the Chinese capital.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2008)