BEIJING -- China on Tuesday said, in order to safeguard the financial stability in the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), it demands the United States to consult and negotiate with the MSAR government to address the concerns of Macao over the BDA issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao made the remarks at a regular press conference when asked to comment on the frozen capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at BDA.

BDA, short for Banco Delta Asia, a Macao-based bank, has come to spotlight since the US Treasury Department ordered American financial institutions to suspend business ties with it in September 2005.

The United States accused the bank of helping the DPRK launder money and subsequently froze the US dollar accounts held by the DPRK at the bank.

The DPRK rejected the charge and demanded the US lift such financial sanction before it could return to the six-party talks, which caused the talks to remained stalled for 13 months since the end of 2005.

The US Treasury Department on March 14 announced a plan to resolve the financial dispute with the DPRK by formally barring US financial institutions from dealing with BDA.

US Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser said on the morning of March 19 before the fresh round of nuclear talks started that the United States had agreed to transfer the DPRK funds in the frozen BDA accounts to a Chinese bank in Beijing.

"We hope relevant concerns of the MSAR government get properly resolved", Liu stressed.