Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan said publicly for the first time he had effectively given up on hopes for resuming six-way talks this year aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

"It is difficult in reality to open the second round of talks within this year," Yoon told a regular weekly briefing in Seoul.

The remark came after China, which has led weeks of feverish diplomatic efforts to resume talks to end the 14-month crisis by the end of this year -- preferably from December 17 to 19 -- finally backed off.

Yoon, who until now has generally been upbeat on prospects for talks this year, did not specify a possible date for the next round.

Earlier, China and the United States had admitted there had been difficulties in setting a date for new crisis talks, which also include the two Koreas, Russia and Japan.

The first round of negotiations ended inconclusively in Beijing in August.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday: "It is now difficult to set specific dates for the second round of six-party talks."

Diplomatic sources in Beijing and Seoul said China has instead began pushing for talks sometime next month, hopefully before the Lunar New Year festivities, which begin on January 22.

On Monday, the United States first disclosed publicly that China had admitted defeat in the effort to resume the dialogue this year -- but said it was ready to go ahead as soon as possible in the new year.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October last year when Washington accused Pyongyang of running an enriched uranium program in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord.

Despite the stalled process of negotiations, Yoon said he remained "not pessimistic" about resuming the second round of talks.

"Consultations among countries concerned are still under way," he said. "We will work to open the nuclear talks as early as possible through cooperation with the United States and Japan, close consultations with China and Russia, and inter-Korean dialogue channels."

There have been wide US-North Korean differences over a draft statement to be adopted at the second round, according to media reports in Seoul and Tokyo.

North Korea has demanded a legally binding security guarantee from the United States in return for abandoning its nuclear ambitions. Washington wants the nuclear program scrapped first.

North Korea's ruling Workers Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said Monday a US-backed counter offer ignored Pyongyang's offer of "simultaneous actions" to resolve the issue, including a nuclear freeze in return for US concessions.

The newspaper indicated that the sticking point in the proposal was Washington's long-standing demand for verification of a North Korean agreement to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

But US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher Monday accused Pyongyang of trying to negotiate the nuts and bolts of a hoped-for accord to dismantle its nuclear program before any talks even took place.

"It shouldn't be a precondition of accepting the other side's proposals before you even sit down and talk," Boucher said.

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