The six parties at North Korean nuclear crisis talks agreed yesterday to take a three-week recess and plan to return to the table in the week of August 29, Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei told a news conference.

Wu said the break was taken to give negotiators a chance to return to their capitals for consultations. The talks failed to reach accord on a joint statement, with Pyongyang clinging fast to its demand to keep nuclear programs for peaceful use.

"I cannot say for sure when we can reach agreement on a joint statement and I cannot say for sure that we will reach agreement after the recess," Wu said.

"But I believe we will reach agreement one day," he said.

He added: "We have already won a very big victory on our Long March."

North Korea announced in February it had built nuclear weapons, saying it had taken the step to provide a deterrent to what it called

US hostility. Intelligence experts estimate it has stockpiled enough plutonium for up to nine nuclear weapons.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China struggled for 13 days but failed to reach agreement on a communiqu that would lay down the principle of North Korea dismantling its nuclear programmes in return for energy aid and security guarantees.

"If we can compare our work to climbing a hill, the top of the hill has already been in sight. The purpose of us having this break is to get to the top more smoothly."

In the end, Wu issued a chairman's statement summarising the progress at the talks but not signed by the parties.

Wu dismissed suggestions that the recess would sap the momentum of the talks, and said the negotiators reached more consensus during the fourth round than during the previous three rounds since 2003.