February 13, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 24, 1428

BEIJING, Feb 12: China on Monday issued a `final text’ outlining how to begin abolishing North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, the chief US envoy said after a marathon round of six-nation disarmament negotiations.

“The Chinese side distributed a final text which will be referred to the capitals of the delegations. We will have another meeting tomorrow and we will see if we can get it approved,” Christopher Hill told reporters.

Mr Hill described the text as `excellent’ and said it outlined initial actions the parties involved in the talks could take to kickstart the process of North Korea ending its nuclear weapons drive.

He said it was based on a six-party deal in Sept 2005 that subsequently fell apart in which North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons programme in return for security guarantees, energy benefits and other aid.

“It was a long day -- lot of effort by a lot of people,” Mr Hill said, referring to the negotiations that lasted 16 hours ours on Monday alone. “I think we made a lot of progress.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters the six delegations had held `extraordinarily intensive consultations’.

“But we still have to have further discussions to confirm things. Because of this, we will continue the talks (on Tuesday).”

Japan's chief delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, told reporters: “This is the final proposal made by China. We will consult with our government back home. It is too early for me to say the draft is acceptable.”

Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted a Japanese lawmaker quoting China's negotiator, Wu Dawei, as saying that North Korea had agreed on the shutdown of its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.—Agencies