A fresh round of six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions may take place in the next 10 days or so, a senior State Department official said on Friday.
"In the next 10 ten days or so I think that there is a possibility of their reconvening but we don't have any done deals yet," said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition he not be named.
The talks, which include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, last year produced an agreement under which North Korea said it was committed "to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs."
Earlier, in a dispatch datelined Tokyo, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency quoted "informed sources in the Japanese capital" as saying the talks could restart on December 16. Separately, President George W. Bush on Friday imposed sanctions on North Korea that appear to have little practical impact in retaliation for Pyongyang's successful October 9 nuclear test.