'I don't think the gaps are too wide to bridge. We only need more time and efforts. I believe the North is also willing to resolve this issue,' Mr Chun Yung Woo said after meeting North Korea's Kim Kye Gwan.

Six-nation disarmament talks have been deadlocked since late last year amid a dispute over a commitment by the North to give a full and complete declaration of all the nuclear programmes it has spent decades developing.

The North insists it has already done so, but the United States believes vital aspects have been left out of the declaration, chiefly an admission of a highly enriched uranium programme.

Mr Chun said the North Koreans were prepared to attend another round of talks among the six nations involved - the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.

'The basic position of the North is that it is willing to come to the talks whenever arranged by the host China. The North always agrees with the need for the six-party process,' Mr Chun said.

Diplomatic activity aimed at ending the impasse in the six-party talks has intensified in recent days.

US chief negotiator Christopher Hill visited Beijing this week and held talks there with Mr Kim, before flying on to Seoul and Tokyo for further consultations.

He is preparing for a regional visit next week by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which will also focus largely on the nuclear issue.

Mr Hill said on Wednesday in Tokyo that Mr Kim had assured him the North was still committed to carrying out its part of the disarmament deal.

Aside from the bilateral meeting between the envoys from the two Koreas on Thursday, the pair held talks with Chinese officials about aid the North would get in return for disarming, as per the six-nation accord brokered last year.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Thursday that the recent diplomatic flurry should give rise for some optimism.

'We believe that progress in the six-party talks and the process of the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula has taken some clear steps forward through the efforts of all parties, including the Chinese,' Mr Liu said. -- AFP