Chinese diplomats, including top North Korea envoy Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Yi, have been in close contact with counterparts abroad to put the results of the first round of talks into writing, the foreign ministry said.

"There's just one objective, to put the consensus obtained in the first round of talks into a document, to ensure concrete progress in the second round of talks," Kong Quan, the ministry's spokesman, told a regular briefing.

The remark followed previous indications that China, the host of the largely inconclusive talks in August, was keen to avoid the embarrassment of hosting another round of fruitless discussions.

One month ago, China's foreign ministry said the next round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear question should not go ahead unless a breakthrough was assured.

The consensus mentioned by the foreign ministry spokesman most likely refers to six points agreed to in August, including the need to solve the crisis through peaceful means and to secure a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

A second round of six-party talks -- involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia -- had been expected last month but failed to materialize.

South Korea said Tuesday that the talks could be pushed back to the middle of the year as North Korea and the United States hardened their positions.

A Russian diplomat quoted by the Interfax news agency said last week that various drafts for a statement to be agreed upon at a second round of six-party talks were actively being prepared.

"The document's status remains open," the unnamed diplomat said. "It could be either an unwritten statement from the chairman of the talks, as during the first round, a joint statement by the participants, or any other format ... It is the content that counts, not the form."

WAR.WIRE