N Korean N-test threat casts shadow over Beijing talks

US officials said the threat, made in a two-hour meeting between US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and North Korean negotiators in Beijing Thursday, resembled those from Pyongyang in the past.

The move has raised doubts that even faint progress can be achieved as the third round of talks among North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China ended their third day. The previous rounds ended with agreement only to meet again.

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The negotiations were due to end on schedule Saturday, although China's Foreign Ministry canceled a closing ceremony.

Chief negotiators ended Friday's meeting just before 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) and deputies were to meet to work on a draft joint document.

A diplomatic source said China held separate talks with the United States and North Korea, trying to persuade them to agree to issue a statement outlining common ground.

Negotiations have been focused on a US offer of conditional aid and security guarantees to try to break a 20-month-old deadlock in the nuclear crisis. North Korea has put forward its own plan demanding rewards in return for freezing its ambitions.

While few had expected a breakthrough, the US proposal was the most detailed offer since President Bush took office and branded the North as part of an "axis of evil" alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq.

North Korea has issued no formal statement on the US proposal and its test threat was another sign of the gulf dividing the United States and North Korea, the protagonists in a crisis that has simmered since October 2002 when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted having a uranium enrichment program.