Hill described meetings as "positive," after he and delegates from China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia held a series of bilateral discussions and a group meet as the talks resumed following a two-month break.

"We are hoping that sometime tomorrow (Friday) we can circulate a text of a joint statement for this round and agree on a kind of road map that will take us to the end of the year," Hill told journalists.

"It will specify those things that need to be done by year end."

Delegates would seek to issue the joint statement by Sunday and work towards full declaration and disablement of the nuclear programmes by the end of the year, he said.

South Korean chief envoy Chun Yung-Woo said there was gap between what the North was willing to declare and disable and what the other countries expected.

"But I don't think it is impossible to narrow this gap because North Korea has a strong will to make an achievement and reach an agreement at this round of talks and so do other countries," Chun said.

North Korea has signalled it would push ahead with nuclear disarmament as the long-running talks resumed.

While not giving specifics, top North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan promised concrete developments in the ongoing session, which is due to last until Sunday.

"We have agreed not to disappoint you by producing a result out of the six-party talks," Kim told reporters after meeting with Hill Wednesday night.

"The concrete details will be disclosed in the process of talks."

Wu Dawei, the chief envoy from China, which is the traditional host of the talks, also voiced optimism as the gathering got underway.

"This meeting is an important one in the six-party talks process," Wu said in an opening statement to the envoys.

"Under the joint nurturing of all parties, the six-party talks have been growing robustly in the right direction. A new harvest season looms in front of us."

Wu said the main task of this round was to discuss and determine the next steps of the disarmament action plan.

The talks began in 2003 with the aim of convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme, but failed to stop the reclusive regime from conducting its first atomic weapons test in October last year.

However the parties finally agreed in February that North Korea would scrap its nuclear programme in return for a wide range of economic, diplomatic and security concessions.

Under the deal, North Korea would eventually receive one million tonnes of fuel oil in return for completely scrapping its nuclear weapons programme.

After North Korea closed its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon in July, South Korea delivered a first shipment of 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil.

China then delivered North Korea's second tranche of 50,000 tonnes this month.

Hill, who has repeatedly said he hoped North Korea would disable its nuclear programmes by the end of the year, was cautiously positive at the start of proceedings on Thursday.

"We would like to do more, the DPRK (North Korea) would like to do less. (But) we will figure out a way through that, this is not a big gap," he told reporters.

While North Korea has closed its Yongbyon reactor, no one outside of the communist country is sure how much fuel for atomic bombs it has already produced, and what other programmes it has secretly developed.

The so-called "declaration" phase being discussed this week has long threatened to throw up many hurdles that could derail the disarmament process.

In one such example, the United States has accused North Korea of running a secret programme to produce highly enriched uranium, which can be used to make atomic bombs.

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