by-step rewards for its pledges and actions, but declined to specify how the country would respond to the offer. AP reported that the increased contacts between the Americans and North Koreans are a change from the previous three rounds of nuclear talks, where Washington mostly shunned direct contact with the communist nation. The last round of the six-nation talks was in June 2004 and the latest began this week after the North ended a boycott over what it called «hostile» U.S. policies. Japan's main delegate, Kenichiro Sasae, said the U.S.-North Korea talks Thursday would determine the course of the following negotiations. Without progress between those two countries, there won't be agreement on a joint statement from all sides at the conclusion of the talks, Sasae said. That document was still under discussion Thursday afternoon and wasn't expected to be issued by the end of the day, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang. No schedule has been set for Friday's meetings, he said. Qin said the United States and North Korea were «in the process of finding common ground and measuring their differences.» Also Thursday, China's Foreign Ministry hosted a lunch for envoys from all six governments _ China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas _ in an apparent effort to maintain a cordial tone after the often-strained atmosphere during earlier rounds. The host of the lunch, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, praised the atmosphere of the talks. «All the delegates come to the talks with a good political will, that is, to make progress in solving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue,» he said, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. --mor 1049 Local Time 0749 GMT
