BEIJING, May 15: North Korea lashed out at the United States on Saturday, accusing Washington of wasting time after a working-level talks on the simmering 19-month crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear drive ended with few signs of progress.

Working group delegations to six-nation talks on the bitter standoff left Beijing on Saturday after the United States and North Korea appeared to harden their positions at the talks, which began on Wednesday.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said the United States was wasting time and this could lead the state to build up his nuclear deterrent, the official KCNA news agency reported.

"If the US persistently seeks to waste time, pressurizing the DPRK (North Korea) to change its political system and disarm itself under the signboard of 'peaceful talks', the DPRK will...use it as a means for building stronger nuclear deterrent force," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

The low-level discussions were seeking to set the agenda for a third round of higher, vice ministerial talks agreed to when the delegations from the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia last met in February.-AFP