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  Often, these diplomatic dinners are more productive than formal meetings, though in this case it was not known whether there was any progress. The Asian diplomatic sources said the atmosphere was good.

The discussions between Li Gun, deputy head of U.S. affairs at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, and Joseph DeTrani, the U.S. special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, took place ahead of a new round of six-party talks on the nuclear standoff expected to be held in Beijing by the end of September.

Li said it was "obvious and natural" that he would talk to DeTrani since they were in the same room for 1 1/2 days at the conference, which began Tuesday morning.

When DeTrani was told that Li said they had talked, and was asked how the discussions went, he replied: "We had very good meetings." He then left, refusing to answer any more questions.

The U.S. State Department said DeTrani did not schedule any bilateral meetings with participants at the Conference on Northeast Asian Security. The conference was organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, a nonpartisan organization that invites scholars, diplomats, and experts to focus on key issues and conflicts involving U.S. interests.

But Li and DeTrani not only met informally during the conference, they dined together Tuesday night with South Korea's ambassador to the United States, Han Sung-joo, and the U.S. State Department's director of policy planning, Mitchell Reiss, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said last week that the United States would like to convene a working party meeting of the participants in the six-party talks as soon as possible to prepare for the next session.

DeTrani and Li have represented their countries at the working party meetings. Besides the United States and North Korea, the other participants in the talks are South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

Li and Yang Xi Yu, director of the Korean peninsula office in China's Foreign Ministry, insisted that there was no bargaining, negotiations or decisions about the six-party talks at the conference.

Asked what he saw as the next step in the six-party talks, Li said, "They have voted to have the fourth round of six-party talks and we are working on it."

During this week's conference, he said, "We talked about issues, but this is not negotiations, but only exchange of views."

"The opportunity has been useful and every party has explained their original positions. We ... introduced our original positions," Li said. "It was cordial. We exchanged (views) in a frank manner and it was businesslike."

Little progress has been made in the three sessions of six-party talks so far.

At the most recent meeting in June, the United States proposed a three-month preparation period during which the North would freeze work on its nuclear program, submit a list of all nuclear activities and remove key weapons ingredients.

North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for energy, the lifting of U.S. economic sanctions and removal from Washington's list of countries that sponsor terrorism, saying the freeze would be a step toward eventual dismantling.

But the U.S. proposal required the North to go further, helping to dismantle facilities and allowing outside monitoring. Under the plan, some benefits would be withheld to ensure the North cooperates.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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