Focus on nuke talks, global economy: Negroponte

The Six-Party Talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and the global economy should be the focus of the incoming Obama administration in its handling of Sino-US relations, visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said yesterday.

"I think one of the issues that will obviously be of continuing interest will be the question of the Six-Party Talks and the desire of both of our countries ... to see progress toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Negroponte said.

The last round of the talks held last month in Beijing made little progress, with countries failing to reach a deal on a protocol outlining the verifying of information provided by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on its nuclear programs.