China announced that Beijing will host the six-nation talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program, which resume Feb 8, AP reported. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the talks would aim to set out the first steps of North Korea's nuclear disarmament, agreed on in a September 2005 joint statement. "We hope that all sides will continue to display a positive attitude, strengthen dialogue, enhance trust and as early as possible fully implement the joint statement and realize the goal of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. The US ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said North Korea would have to take "concrete steps" to get rid of its nuclear weapons. Other members of the six-party talks are South Korea, Japan and Russia.