New Delhi: The prospect of initial steps towards ending North Korea's nuclear arms programme brightened a little on Friday as negotiators considered a plan for Pyongyang to suspend operations at a nuclear plant within two months.
North Korea is under intense pressure to accept a deal even from its Communist neighbour and long-time supporter China.
Pyongyang has said there can be no progress on nuclear issues until the financial standoff is resolved.
US envoy Christopher Hill said the negotiations boiled down to one or two unspecified sticking points after overcoming what he had considered "tough" issues.
The US and other countries are trying to extract from North Korea a commitment to make its first tangible steps toward abandoning its nuclear programs since the negotiations began in 2003.
That goal has become more pressing since the North tested its first nuclear bomb in October, during one of the many deadlocks in the talks.
Fresh momentum in the talks between the two Koreas, China, the US, Japan and Russia came after the US and North Korean negotiators held two-way talks in Berlin last month.
Pyongyang staged its first nuclear test last October 2006.
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