US, S Korea fail to hammer out deal

Washington has said it plans to withdraw by next year 12,500 of some 37,000 US troops stationed here since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

South Korea, which is still technically at war with communist North Korea, had wanted the troop cut to be delayed by at least 2006, or preferably to 2008, Yonhap news agency reported, citing defense officials.

"We decided to discuss it later as differences exist over the timing of individual combat units subject to the troop cut," Seoul's chief delegate Ahn Kwang-Chan, an assistant defense minister, told a joint new conference here.

Ahn said he and his US counterpart, Under Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless, had "agreed in general to a need" for rescheduling the withdrawal of some units during the two-day meeting here that began on Thursday.

Defense analysts here have said Seoul, jittery about security, may need time to prepare itself to cover the US military phase-out.

"We surely want to push it back," a South Korean defense ministry official told AFP ahead of the tense military talks.

Defense officials said the issue would be referred to the annual US-South Korean security consultation meeting between their defense chiefs in Washington in October.