The government number two, Nobutaka Machimura, met Saturday with families of Japanese abducted by the communist state and suggested sanctions would be prolonged for another six months, Jiji Press and the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The sanctions -- which ban all imports from North Korea including money-making produce such as clams, crabs and high-end matsutake mushrooms -- are set to expire on April 13.

"It would be a different story if some progress were made before they expire," Machimura was quoted by Jiji as saying in the closed-door meeting. "Otherwise the government will make a proper judgement."

Japan imposed the sweeping sanctions, which also include a ban on all port calls by North Korean ships, after the communist state tested an atom bomb in October 2006.

North Korea last year signed a landmark deal to abandon all its nuclear weapons in exchange for badly needed energy and economic aid, security guarantees and diplomatic benefits.

But the six-nation agreement -- which includes the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States -- has been stalled as Pyongyang missed a year-end deadline to declare all its nuclear programmes and disable its plutonium plant.

"It's very disappointing that North Korea has not taken specific actions," Machimura, the chief cabinet secretary, was quoted as saying.

"The government will make a proper judgement while looking carefully at the situations over the abductions, six-way talks and US-North Korea talks," he said.

Japan, which has refused to provide aid under the six-nation deal, has tense relations with North Korea in part due to the emotionally charged abduction row.

North Korea has admitted it had kidnapped Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies for the regime.

North Korea returned five abductees and their families in 2002, and says others are dead. But Japan contends that more of its nationals are alive and being kept under wraps.

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