Friday, July 29 2005 10:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: The envoys of the United States and North Korea today (July 29, 2005) met in Beijing for the fourth time in as many days for a crucial round of talks which will make or break the ongoing round of six-party talks to diplomatically resolve Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

The fourth round of bilateral talks are taking place between U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan on the sidelines of the meetings being held at the Diaoyutai State Guest House here.

One-on-one meetings between delegations would prevail on the fourth day of the six-party talks in search of ways to resolve the nuclear issue, diplomatic sources said.

An South Korean diplomat said yesterday that all delegations agreed at a luncheon hosted by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo to strive for substantive results, including a joint statement.

Despite intensive bilateral and delegation-level meetings since Tuesday, Washington and Pyongyang have not found common ground on how to proceed with the dismantlement of the latter's nuclear weapons programme, the sources said.

"There is no clear sign of a breakthrough in the sensitive negotiations," the source said, indicating that today might be the last day of the fourth round of six-party talks which resumed after a 13-month hiatus.

All six nations the two Koreas, United States, China, Japan and Russia have agreed to make the divided Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons but differed over the way to achieve it, the source said.

He said the lack of progress was due to the hard positions of the two Cold War era rivals, North Korea and the United States.