multilateral talks

China insists on dealing with Southeast Asian nations one on one, but Mrs. Clinton said the United States supported multilateral talks.

The DPRK side is willing to conduct multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, in light of the progress of DPRK-US talks.

Mr. Kim also is willing to engage in what the report describes as "bilateral or multilateral talks" to help push that goal forward.

Perhaps the pain of sanctions is leading him back to multilateral talks on disarmament, last convened almost two years ago.

At the last major Asean meetings, in July, China agreed to participate in multilateral talks on the issue.

Multilateral talks aimed at resolving the escalating row over North Korea's nuclear weapons program are scheduled to begin in Beijing today.

But in November, the US and the Philippines signed a declaration calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime territorial disputes.

Mr Kim told Mr Dai that North Korea was willing to resolve the nuclear issue "through bilateral and multilateral talks" .

But the US has sought to address the nuclear issue through multilateral talks that pull in South Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

Tomorrow's meeting will discuss whether to reopen the multilateral talks, which were suspended last July.

In December, multilateral talks in Copenhagen will form the basis of measures to succeed the Kyoto protocol.

ASEAN has called for multilateral talks to settle South China Sea boundaries but Beijing rejects that idea.

Bilateral dialogue and multilateral talks can complement and reinforce each other.

Another complication is that North Korea's leader hinted that he may want Japan excluded from multilateral talks.

There would be no alternatives to multilateral talks in which all counries of the region would be fully involved