Chinese, Portuguese Officials Vow to Quicken Talk ����According to authorized sources from Macau on January18, both sides of the Sino-Portuguese Joint Liaison Group (JLG) declared that they would gear up their consultation in the last year on Macao's hand-over. ����Han Zhaokang and Antonio Santana Carlos, chief representatives of the Chinese and Portuguese sides of the JLG, expressed consensus in a recess of the 34th session of the JLG, which opened this morning. ����While reviewing the overall work of the group, the two officials agreed that they should strengthen consultations inside the JLG for sincere and pragmatic cooperation, Han said. ����"For the Chinese side, some issues concerning the transfer of power and Macao's smooth transition lie on the negotiation table," Han said. ����"The Chinese side is ready to exert utmost efforts to strengthen cooperation with the Portuguese side and hold consultations with flexible and pragmatic attitude," he noted. ����Antonio Santana Carlos also said that he had reached a consensus with his Chinese counterpart that they should speed up their work to ensure that associated problems can be addressed well before the transfer of power. ����He noted that it is of significance for the two sides to reach a certain kind of understanding, for each side has some topics of priority. ����The session is the first of its kind this year. HomeNews 1999-01-20 Page4 Full Story in Chinese