China's top nuclear envoy was due to meet Hill during a quickfire round of diplomacy that also saw negotiators from both Koreas and Japan travel to Beijing, a Chinese foreign ministry official said.

China's vice foreign minister Wu Dawei would meet separately with each of the negotiators in hopes that Pyongyang would soon hand in a full declaration of its atomic programmes, ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

"We hope that other relevant parties can have effective communications at the bilateral level so that we can implement the (nuclear agreement) in a comprehensive and balanced way," Qin said.

"As for when the DPRK (North Korea) will deliver its nuclear declaration, we hope the six-party talks will continue to make progress as quickly as possible.

"This is the shared aspirations of the six parties and is what we have been waiting for."

Hill arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, a US embassy official said, but it was not immediately clear if he would meet his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-Gwan.

Hill was scheduled to meet Chinese officials on Wednesday before heading on to Moscow Thursday.

Qin said the discussions would be aimed at advancing the stalled six-party nuclear disarmament process. The schedule of the meetings was still being worked out, he added.

The North agreed last year to disable nuclear plants at its key Yongbyon facility in exchange for aid and diplomatic recognition, in a landmark deal reached with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

As part of the six-party agreement, Pyongyang was to hand over a full declaration of all its nuclear activities by December 31 last year.

But disputes over the declaration have blocked the start of the final phase of the process -- the permanent dismantling of the plants and the handover of all atomic material.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said last week that Hill was open to meeting Kim, further fuelling hopes that the declaration would be handed over.

Hill has previously met Kim in the Chinese capital. As chair of the six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations, China is tasked with receiving the inventory or declaration from North Korea.

Hill told reporters last week that "we're getting to the point where the declaration is coming," although he could not say whether it would be days or weeks.

According to the State Department, the purpose of Hill's Beijing trip was to brief China and Russia on a meeting held last week in Washington between negotiators from the United States, Japan and South Korea.

North Korea, which staged a nuclear test in October 2006, is disabling its plutonium-producing reactor and other plants under the six-party deal.

In return for total denuclearisation, the North would receive energy aid, a lifting of US sanctions, the establishment of diplomatic relations with Washington and eventually a formal peace treaty to the 1950-53 Korean War.

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