Wednesday, August 3 2005 19:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: The ninth day of six-party talks on the vexed North Korean nuclear issue ended in Beijing today (Aug 3, 2005) without a breakthrough with envoys planning to meet for a record tenth day tomorrow (Aug 4, 2005) to finalise a joint statement, diplomats said.

Delegates to the six-party talks had finished the agenda for today's meeting and agreed to meet again tomorrow, Chinese diplomats said.

Though they didn't set the end date for the in-camera talks, the six nations participating in the fourth round of talks are still striving to reach a consensus, Japanese delegation head Sasae Kenichiro told reporters.

The six delegations to the ongoing nuclear talks continued to make revisions to and coordinate their stance on the latest draft of a common document during today's negotiation, with China as the key coordinator.

A series of one-on-one contacts were held today for negotiators to exchange views on the latest draft joint statement proposed by China that is aimed at establishing a framework for future talks on the eventual settlement of the nuclear issue, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier reports said a chief delegates' session was planned for this afternoon, but it was cancelled, which Xinhua quoted observers as commenting that it may indicate the failure to make a "final comment" on the draft joint statement US chief negotiator Christopher Hill said the six delegations would make today.

Hill had earlier raised hopes of a breakthrough when he said this morning that the latest draft joint statement "narrowed differences" among all sides and an agreement could be possibly reached.

He said that the draft, presented by the Chinese delegation, was "really designed to narrow the differences and maybe even got to the point where we can really agree on something."

It should be the last version for the common document as the six delegations would make a "final comment" on the latest fourth draft today, he said.

According to him, the negotiators "are really getting close, close to the end of this round" of the nuclear talks.

Details of the new text were not made public but Hill confirmed that it contains a mention of two disputed issues, the problem of a highly enriched uranium (HEU) programme and peaceful use of atomic energy.

The North Korean delegation in its first open statement on the current talks yesterday, admitted differences existed between it and the United States.

Delegation head Kim Kye-gwan said that his delegation had hours of consultations with the US delegation over past days.

"Though there are disagreements between the two, we wish to be able to minimise the differences and achieve a result in the talks," he said.