The plan for holding, by the end of this year, a second round of the talks, which were initiated in Beijing last August, has been abandoned "for technical reasons," the TV Asahi network reported citing a Japanese diplomatic source.

Foreign Ministry press secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima told AFP that he had no information on the reported delay.

The influential daily Asahi Shimbun said the United States and its allies, South Korea and Japan, had revised a Chinese-drafted joint statement for the talks because it was seen as ambiguous on the "verifiable and irreversible" manner of dismantling the nuclear programme.

The revised draft statement was sent on Saturday to China, the daily said quoting a Japanese government official. Russia is also a party to the six-nation process.

The news agency Jiji Press also reported from Washington, quoting a conference source, that the six nations will not hold the new round from December 17 to 19, the originally proposed dates.

"As a result, it is almost impossible to convene the meeting by the end of this year and the participating nations are set to aim for a meeting in mid-January," Jiji said.

The revised statement clearly refers to "verifiable abolition" of the Stalinist state's nuclear programme, Asahi said.

The Kyodo news agency, in a report from Washington overnight quoting a negotiation source, said China was expected to adjust the content of the statement with North Korea over the weekend and early next week.

But whether Pyongyang will agree to include a phrase about verification is unclear because it would mean Pyongyang discarding the nuclear card, Kyodo said.

On December 4, the United States, South Korea and Japan agreed that any joint statement should make six points, including a declaration of their willingness to resolve the standoff peacefully, to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons, and to opening talks with Pyongyang on normalising ties if it abandons plans to develop nuclear weapons, Kyodo said, quoting negotiation sources.

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