The statement said that the nation might change its position if South Korea agreed to exclusive joint talks with North Korea.

No deal has been signed, but the companies are in exclusive talks with Pirelli until the end of the month.

The banks said they were continuing their exclusive talks, which were initially scheduled to end Wednesday after 30 days, and were working on a combination agreement.

Just a few weeks ago, a deal looked uncertain after exclusive talks between Telecom Italia and the two buyers ended without an agreement.

But they cautioned that a deal might not be reached and Unocal might instead enter into exclusive talks with a preferred bidder.

Alstom will conduct exclusive talks with the Iraqi government for a year.

DreamWorks and Universal agreed to exclusive talks two months ago.

The two had been in exclusive talks until Friday.

After a year of exclusive talks with the authority, the Jets offered only $100 million for the property, which infuriated transit officials.

Earlier, Marks & Spencer had said that it was in exclusive talks with Gristede's Foods.