Beijing ? China on Thursday called for progress in international efforts to get North Korea to scrap nuclear weapons development in exchange for aid as it announced that the slow-moving talks will resume next week in Beijing.

China has organized four rounds of negotiations since 2003 on the North Korea nuclear issue, leading to an agreement in September for the North to give up its atomic ambitions in exchange for energy aid and a security guarantee.

Yet, much still needs to be done in the six-nation talks, which also include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia. Negotiators will seek to work out the steps for North Korea to disarm and how they will be verified. Washington and others want a timetable for international inspections.

The negotiations resume Wednesday.

Two long years of talks have proceeded fitfully and amid deep distrust. North Korea still refuses to disarm completely without getting concessions along the way, while Washington has said it wants to see the weapons programs dismantled before granting rewards.

Specifically, North Korea says it must be given a light-water nuclear reactor for civilian use before it will disarm – a demand it repeated Thursday and which Washington has rejected in the past.