BEIJING, Aug 6: Marathon talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions will head into recess after failing to break a deadlock over Pyongyang’s demand for peaceful nuclear capabilities, delegates said on Saturday. Russian chief delegate Alexander Alexeyev said the fourth round of the six-party talks would take a recess after a plenary meeting on Sunday morning.

The recess would last about two weeks, Mr Alexeyev was quoted as saying. Japan’s chief delegate Kenchiro Sasae told reporters the delegates were moving towards a recess but refused to elaborate.

A meeting of all chief delegates from the six nations — North Korea, the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia — was scheduled for Sunday morning, to be followed by a press conference by China.

US chief envoy Christopher Hill refused to confirm that a recess was planned, saying it would be impolite to speak ahead of the host nation’s announcement Sunday.

“All I can tell you is that we have worked very, very hard,” Hill said. “I can assure you that we are very interested in reaching an agreement.”

The fourth round of talks has lasted longer than any of the previous efforts, which all ended after about three days. Still, it appeared headed to suffer the same fate — to end without any concrete results.

Despite 12 days of intense, sometimes late-night negotiations, the six nations could not reach agreement on a key sticking point: whether the North should be allowed to run nuclear programs for peaceful, energy use.

Washington has demanded that North Korea give up all its nuclear programs, not just its weapons capability, to defuse a crisis that has rumbled on for nearly three years.—AFP