In the end, international pressure finally led PRC representatives to renew unofficial talks with their Dharmsala counterparts.

As the two Governments resumed unofficial talks today in Tokyo, Japanese businessmen here expressed cautious optimism that an agreement could be reached before too long.

Although his language did not seem to preclude unofficial talks in private channels, other Government officials said they could not confirm that.

With July 1 now gone, there is unofficial talk here of a new target date of July 17 for signing an agreement on widened self-rule.

The unofficial talks at Magdalenka and then the Polish Round Table talks of 1989 allowed for a peaceful transition of power to the democratically-elected government.

"In unofficial talks they have agreed to do this and the new government will have a majority of 180 seats," the aide said.

From December 1998 through the fall of 1999, Japan and North Korea held several rounds of unofficial talks aimed at restarting the stalled normalization negotiations.

The current "unofficial" talks are sponsored by the Ethiopian Government.

To cut a long story short, following the resolution by the European Parliament, there was clearly still room for unofficial talks with the Council in the presence of the Commission.

During these unofficial talks, I feel we have grown to know each other, yes?