Six-party talks aimed at defusing a crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions will enter a sixth day on Sunday after failing to a break a deadlock over Pyongyang's insistence on its right to atomic energy.
Delegates from the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China decided on a plenary session at 0100 GMT on Sunday to attempt to break the impasse, a South Korean delegate said on Saturday.
Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese delegation sources as saying it was becoming more likely the multilateral talks would break for a second recess. An official decision will be made Sunday, it said.
The talks remained deadlocked despite a meeting of chief delegates and a flurry of bilaterals during the day. Japan's representative was pessimistic about reaching any solution.
"No breakthrough has been achieved at this point," Kenichiro Sasae told reporters. "The prospects are not bright. We are not satisfied with the present situation."
On Saturday evening, China treated delegates from other countries to a banquet to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is known best for moon cakes - pastries with fillings like lotus seed paste and duck egg yolk to symbolise the moon.
It is celebrated in China on Sunday and runs from September 17-19 in North and South Korea with families gathering for reunions, paying respects to ancestors and feasting.
Host China's Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo praised the latest draft statement and urged the parties to reach an accord.
"It is the most realistic scenario for the relevant parties to reach an accord, an excelled piece of work all the parties created," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Dai as telling the banquet, adding it was a "balanced" and "win-win" proposal.
During the day, delegates discussed a revised draft statement proposed by China on Friday, which Russian chief delegate Alexander Alexeyev described as balanced and said acknowledged Pyongyang's right to the long-term prospect of a light-water nuclear reactor the North has been demanding. But Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a North Korean source as saying China's draft was unacceptable and "practically repeats the position of the United States".
Failure to reach an agreement on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes in exchange for aid and security guarantees could prompt Washington to take the issue to the UN Security Council to press for sanctions.
Pyongyang has said sanctions would be tantamount to war.
The United States and North Korea were deeply divided over the North's demands for a nuclear reactor to generate electricity. Pyongyang rejected an offer by Seoul to supply it with 2,000 megawatts of conventional energy.
"We think there has been a very good package on the table and we believe the DPRK needs to look very carefully," chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said, referring to Pyongyang's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
There is agreement in principle on a nuclear-weapons-free Korean peninsula. But four rounds of negotiations since 2003 have been unable to secure even a basic statement of principles.