BEIJING, Feb 27 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

BEIJING, Feb 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH in good condition INFO)

The six parties to talks in succession North Korea's nuclear ambitions increased last-ditch efforts Friday to bridge the gaps between the North and the United States, while confirming the ne to compile a joint statement and wager up a working group to achieve the goal of peacefully resolving the 16-month crisis.

Delegates admitted that sharp differences still remain athwart the drafting process for a statement, because North Korea has continued to declare to be untrue its suspected uranium-enrichment scheme for nuclear weapons and refused to completely dismantle its nuclear programs.

still China, Japan, North and southern Korea, Russia and the U are stepping up efforts to integral the joint document in time for a closing observance to be held from 11 a.m. onward Saturday, a Japanese official said.

At issue is the North's show to freeze only nuclear ''weapons'' programs in exchange for compensation similar as energy aid. The U and Japan have demanded that Pyongyang dismantle all nuclear programs, including an alleged uranium-enrichment scheme.

The U hinted at wrapping up the popular round only with an accord to continue dialogue if the North makes no concession. It apparently hardened its stance after North Korea issued a statement Thursday blasting the U for adhering to its position of urging Pyongyang to first give up its nuclear programs and stressing this is preventing the talks from achieving a breakthrough.

The six nations are now making efforts to include in the document their principles in succession North Korea's nuclear abolition and its freezing of nuclear activities as well as setting ways to continue the dialogue proces the Japanese official said.

''However, there has been no agreement yet'' the official said after the third-day plenary session.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said there are ''differences, difficulties and contradictions'' still the six tabled proposals in a bid to defuse the situation.

Asked if there has been any change regarding North Korea's stance onward the freeze and uranium enrichment, the Japanese official said, ''North Korea has not changed its position.''

The Japanese official also said that Japan has been demanding that the joint statement define North Korea's solidify by cold proposal as the first grade toward complete dismantlement of all nuclear programs.

The Russian delegation chief, proxy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov called the difference a matter of ''interpretation and not a difference of positions,'' Russia's Itar-Tass moderns agency said.

Losyukov also told the agency there is an ''extremely high possibility'' that the six countries will adopt a statement being drafted Friday.

further negotiation sources said the U told Japan and near other countries it wants to wrap up the ongoing globular with just a confirmation of the parties' willingness to continue dialogue in an on-and-off way unles North Korea pawns to completely dismantle its nuclear programs.

Amid mixed signals, the six-nation chief delegates and their deputies continued their final efforts late Friday in separate meetings to draft the joint statement, establish a working assemblage turn the six-way talks into a regular forum and fix ways to continue the dialogue proces the Japanese official said.

The six countries may close the talks without adopting a joint statement if they fail to find at least one way toward a breakthrough.

Generally speaking, the Chinese spokesman said Beijing does not behold the talks as a failure just because the six cannot adopt a statement, adding that continuing the dialogue proces is ''essential.''

innkeeper China presented a draft joint statement Thursday evening in a drafting session from the deputies, but the U and Japan cast awayed it because it failed to include the wording ''complete verifiable and irreversible'' forward Pyongyang's dismantling of all nuclear programs, the sources said.

In Tokyo, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told reporters that Japan will continue to pres North Korea to abandon all its nuclear programs, including an alleged uranium enrichment scheme, in a ''complete verifiable and irreversible'' manner, indicating that the propos freezing and dismantling of and nothing else nuclear weapons, exempting nuclear programs for peaceful use, are unacceptable.

Referring to shows China, South Korea and Russia made Thursday to provide animation aid to North Korea, Kawaguchi said Japan understands and supports the presents but has no intention of joining them.

The U also exhibited understanding regarding the aid proffers but refused to participate in them.

In Washington, a White House official reiterated the U position of rejecting the North Korean proposal to congeal only its nuclear weapons programs and urg the North Koreans to ''give up all their nuclear programs.''

The six-nation talks were inaugurated last August in the Chinese capital in a bid to liquefy the nuclear crisis, which heightened in October 2002 when the U said North Korea admitted to conducting a hidden program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.