North Korea and the United States may hold new talks this month on ways to restart stalled six-nation discussions on the North's nuclear disarmament, a South Korean report said Tuesday.

Nuclear envoys from Washington and Pyongyang met in New York in July and in Geneva in October, but reported no breakthrough. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said that a third meeting could take place this month.

During recent contact, the two sides apparently narrowed differences on pending issues, including the North's denuclearisation steps and Washington's possible resumption of food aid to Pyongyang, Yonhap said.

"Depending on the situation, a possibility of holding a third round of meetings between North Korea and the US before the year's end can not be ruled out," a diplomatic source was quoted as saying.

Glyn Davies, the US special representative on North Korea policy, said in Seoul last week that he had no interest in "talks for talks' sake".

"I hope at some point, in the not too distant future, we will have an opportunity to get back to the table with them. But quite frankly we are not interested in talks for talks' sake," he said.

The North quit the six-party forum, which involves the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia, in April 2009, a month before staging its second nuclear test.

The North wants the forum to resume without preconditions and says its uranium enrichment programme -- first disclosed to visiting US experts one year ago -- can be discussed at the talks.

The United States however says the North must first show "seriousness of purpose" toward denuclearisation by shutting down the programme.

The North said earlier this month that it is making rapid progress in enriching uranium and building a new reactor.

It says the enrichment is aimed at producing electricity but critics fear the project could give the North a second way to make weapons in addition to its existing plutonium-based bombs.