The action is in its third week

The public sector union Unison expressed disappointment that the local authority employers were "apparently unable to address the central problem of low pay".

However, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), said the meeting in Edinburgh had been "useful" in clarifying the position on pay and progress had been made.

Nursery nurses at council facilities have been taking part in a rolling programme of strike action across Scotland in their demand for �4,000 a year pay increase, reflecting additional responsibilities they say they have had to undertake.

We are bitterly disappointed that, despite their continual calls for us to resume talks, when we did so, they made us no new offer Joe Di Paola, Unison negotiator

The third wave of action, which got under way on Tuesday, was affecting nurseries in Ayrshire, Orkney and Shetland, with nursery nurses in Inverclyde also commencing two days of strikes on Wednesday.

Speaking after the meeting, Joe Di Paola, Unison Scottish organiser, said: "Unison made it very clear that it would require a significant move towards the claim of nursery nurses to enable us to resolve the problem.

"We are bitterly disappointed that, despite their continual calls for us to resume talks, when we did so, they made us no new offer.

"We will continue talking to Cosla, but it will be difficult to make any progress unless there is going to be recognition that nursery nurses need a fair deal, and they cannot wait for some prospective job evaluation scheme."

'Changed duties'

Cosla president Pat Watters said: "We as employers have made significant progress in clarifying the offer to set up a short term task group to look at developing a core job profile for nursery nurses.

"We believe that this goes a considerable way to meeting the claim submitted by the unions for a regrading based on changed duties and responsibilities claimed by the trade unions.

"It would also go a long way towards developing a career structure for early years employees - in that councils could build other job profiles around the core job profile."

Unison intends to target different parts of the country with strike action each week until the dispute is resolved.