Chinese Premier Wen calls for early resumption of N. Korea nuclear talks

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak held one-one-one talks with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on Friday and discussed the North Korean nuclear standoff and other issues, an official said.

Their meeting took place as the leaders gathered on the Indonesian resort island of Bali for a series of annual regional summits aimed at increasing cooperation in their economies and other realms with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Wen expressed hopes that two sets of bilateral negotiations -- one between the two Koreas and the other between the North and the United States -- will make progress so that the long-stalled six-party talks will resume at an early date, senior presidential spokesman Choe Guem-nak said.

South Korea and the U.S. have engaged North Korea in bilateral talks in recent months in an effort to make sure the communist nation is serious about giving up its nuclear programs and willing to take some concrete denuclearization steps before restarting the six-party nuclear talks.

But no breakthrough has been made in those negotiations.

Wen extended Chinese President Hu Jintao's invitation for Lee to visit China and said that Hu will attend March's Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Choe said.

Lee asked for China's active participation in next year's World Expo in the South Korean port city of Yeosu, he said.

Lee also held bilateral meetings with the leaders of Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia.

In the meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein, Lee took note of the country's democratization efforts and asked him to continue those efforts, while the Myanmar leader asked for South Korea's participation in a deep-sea port construction project, Choe said.

Lee agreed to boost economic cooperation with the Vietnamese and Cambodian leaders, Choe said. (Yonhap News)