ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, November 21, 2008 (AFP) - The United States is to urge China at weekend talks to host a new meeting of the six-party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program, US officials said Friday.

The main US goal was to get back to the negotiating table to put in place verification procedures to be worked out with the North Koreans, said Dennis Wilder, senior director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council.

"The Chinese obviously host the six-party meeting. They need to call that meeting. We are very much hoping that by the time we meet APEC we will have ... the timing of that meeting in place," he said.

US President George W. Bush left Friday for the weekend summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima, Peru, where he was due to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao later in the day.

Wilder said the best timing for another round of six-party talks, which are chaired by Beijing, would be in early December.

"Then hopefully that meeting can really get us to the end of the second phase of the six party process and begin to start thinking about the third phase of the six party process."

Japan and South Korea have urged their neighbor, North Korea, to come up with a roadmap on ending its nuclear program amid a long delay in the six-nation deal to disarm Pyongyang.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, who took office in September, on Friday held his first talks with his South Korean counterpart Yu Myung-Hwan on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Lima.

"North Korea should issue a solid document to verify the framework of its denuclearization under the six-way talks," Nakasone told reporters.

Yu "told me that he completely shares the view and said, 'Let's work together on this point heading into the next talks,'" he added.

Washington last month removed North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism saying Pyongyang had agreed to steps to verify its nuclear disarmament and pledged to resume the disabling of its atomic plants.

But nations involved in six-party talks -- China, Japan, the United States, Russia, and the two Koreas -- have yet to endorse a plan for the hardline communist state to fully verify its nuclear record.