MOSCOW - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said on Tuesday the next meeting of the Six Party talks on North Korea was unlikely to take place before 2007, Interfax news agency reported.

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North Korea has agreed to return to the stalled talks -- also including South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia -- which it had boycotted for a year. Some had expected the talks to resume in December.

"Taking into consideration the coming Christmas holidays, every day the possibility that the talks will restart in December is lower," Alexeyev told Interfax.

No date has been finalised for the resumption of talks, he said.

In October, North Korea drew international condemnation for testing a nuclear device. The United Nations Security Council voted to impose punitive sanctions on Pyongyang.