All 192 often hornery nations, many of whom feel excluded from the top-level talks, will have to agree to whatever they decide.

Moscow has suggested that it recognizes as much by holding top-level talks with resistance leaders and keeping its Kabul client in the dark.

Despite the violence, Israelis and Palestinians continued to hint at top-level talks leading to a cease-fire.

Both he and a senior British official, Michael Ancram, said there would probably be further top-level talks.

Still, top-level talks do not appear likely before the election on Jan. 9 to choose the new head of the Palestinian Authority.

The American Secretary of State was due to arrive next week for top-level talks in Paris.

The two leaders would be renewing top-level talks that halted in August, during the violence that ended a previous Palestinian cease-fire.

Top-level talks between the countries have not taken place since Mr. Koizumi visited Beijing in 2001 because of Chinese anger over his visits.

Top-level talks in Moscow on Nov. 3-4 produced the most important agreement between Cuba and Russia since the break-up of the former Soviet Union.

D. Stewart Low, a G.M. spokesman, said this afternoon that while a deal did not appear imminent, the very continuation of top-level talks was a good sign.

TOP-LEVEL talks to help save the closure-threatened Cammell Laird shipyard are set to be held in Wirral tomorrow.

With the Israeli and Palestinian leaders scheduled to meet Tuesday in the first top-level talks since February, the almost daily violence that has been straining their truce continued Monday.

A Japanese diplomat said the deficit, now in its fourth year, was one of the major concerns of Chinese officials during top-level talks on economic issues in Tokyo in May.

We will continue to attempt to revive top-level talks with Unita, the military opposition, to resolve security and political issues, including the participation of Unita at all levels of the Government.

"An early convocation of a North-South joint parliamentary meeting will be an important occasion in helping arrange North-South top-level talks," said a statement issued in Pyongyang on Friday.

International The U.S. and Canada imposed duties on each other's beer shipments, fanning a long-standing dispute on the eve of top-level talks on a North American free-trade agreement.

Stepping up the United States' diplomatic involvement in the Middle East, President Bush has invited Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to his ranch in Texas for top-level talks.

Negotiators, who were locked here late Tuesday in a second day of top-level talks on splitting the Fleet, confirmed the April 22 accord giving Kiev control over 164 ships and Moscow ownership of the remaining 669.

Robert Gallucci, an assistant secretary of state involved in formulating Korea policy, said Friday that if the IAEA's inspection demands were met the US was ready to begin a new round of top-level talks with the North.

At the meeting with the chiefs that occurred on January 11, 2013, Prime Minister Harper had already agreed to top-level talks to modernize and implement the ancient treaties that were always intended to bring peace and prosperity to First Nations.

The dispute over the divided territory was at the heart of the last round of top-level talks between the two countries, again at the Foreign Secretary level, which began in 1989 and collapsed in 1994, after seven rounds, with increasing acrimony over the Pakistan-backed insurgency against Indian rule.