BEIJING, Sunday, Aug. 7 - China on Sunday announced a three-week recess in the diplomatic effort to resolve the North Korean nuclear dispute, but said the six-nation talks would resume in Beijing by the end of this month.

The break in the negotiations follows 13 days of grueling discussions that stalled as the delegations could not agree on a broad joint statement of principles considered critical to pushing forward the disarmament process.

Wu Dawei, head of the delegation for China, which is playing host to the disarmament talks, said the talks were scheduled to resume the week of Aug. 29 and that a precise date would be determined later.

"During the recess, the six parties will report to their respective governments and study ways to solve the differences," said Mr. Wu, a vice foreign minister. "And they are supposed to maintain contact and consultations during that recess."

The deadlock appears largely centered on North Korea"s insistence that it be allowed, as a sovereign nation, to maintain the right to develop nuclear programs for peaceful uses, like power plants. The United States has strongly opposed such a proposal out of concern that North Korea could covertly use such reactors to make materials for nuclear weapons.

The question now is whether a recess will provide enough pressure for a breakthrough or instead foretell a complete collapse in the talks. In Washington, an administration official said differences remained with North Korea but that the talks had achieved "some progress."

On Sunday morning, the chief American negotiator, Christopher R. Hill, left his hotel for the final meeting with the other delegations. Asked whether the United States needed to be more flexible, Mr. Hill disagreed.

"The deal is a very good deal, and I don"t think we need to talk about concessions at this point, but about getting people to the table," Mr. Hill said. "This is a very, very good deal for North Korea."

On Saturday, the Americans and the North Koreans held a last-ditch meeting, but Mr. Hill said, "There was not a whole lot of progress." Still, he cast the negotiations in a positive light, saying the participating countries "had a dialogue and an understanding that we have not had before."

"We need to solve this issue," he said Saturday night. "We have a great political will to solve this issue."

The first three rounds of talks resulted in little tangible progress. Delegates in this round had deemed it critical that the six countries agree on a joint statement of principles that would provide broad steering points for when the talks move to the messier details over ending North Korea"s nuclear program.

The success of drafting such a document seemed urgent, particularly after North Korea"s announcement in February that it now possessed nuclear weapons. For the past few days, Mr. Hill said the six delegations had been considering a fourth draft statement offered by China. Mr. Hill said that all nations except North Korea had agreed to the draft.

Mr. Hill has refused to discuss any specifics regarding the draft statement, or to list exactly what principles it includes, but several participants in the talks said progress stalled over the question of "peaceful use" nuclear programs.

On Thursday night, North Korea"s top negotiator, Kim Kye Gwan, spoke briefly to reporters outside the North Korean Embassy.

"We are for denuclearization, but we also want to possess the right to peaceful nuclear activities," he said. "Every country in the world has the right to peaceful nuclear activities."

The Russian envoy, Alexander Alexeyev, appeared to offer a qualified endorsement of the North Korean position on Saturday. According to the official New China News Agency, Mr. Alexeyev said any country had the right to peaceful nuclear power.


Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting from Washington for this article, and Chris Buckley from Beijing.