US, allies play down breakthrough hopes in nuke talks

As diplomats from six countries prepared to gather in Beijing for the crucial talks, North Korea kept up its usual harsh rhetoric against Washington and what Seoul said were groundless accusations of South Korean military provocation.

Diplomats from the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia will meet in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on August 27-29 in an attempt to defuse the nuclear crisis.

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US officials in Washington played down expectations from the talks, saying they were the start of what was likely to be a long process that Washington hopes will lead to a verifiable end to North Korea's suspected atomic weapons programs.

"This is a beginning," said one official on Friday. "We don't...expect to reach some kind of an agreement next week."

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying that no breakthrough should be expected from the talks. The agency noted that the previous North Korean nuclear crisis in 1993-94 took nearly 18 months of negotiations to resolve.