After more than 50 meetings in the past few weeks in Panmunjom, the village which straddles the border between North and South Korea, the two sides seem no closer to agreement.

One of the latest sticking points is deciding where 6,000 displaced Koreans should live.

The Communists have also objected to allied proposals about the composition of neutral nation observer teams.

Stalled for weeks

Initially the truce talks stalled over North Korea's insistence on being allowed to rebuild its damaged airfields.

The allies eventually proposed shelving discussion of the airfields in the hope of making more progress in other areas of the talks.

The row has now focussed on the two sides agreeing the number of observers to be included in the inspection teams. The UN originally put forward a figure of 70,000 - which it later reduced to 40,000.

The Communists have raised their offer from an original 5,000 troops to 25,000.

The composition of the neutral nation observer teams has proved another sticking point. Sweden, Switzerland and Norway have been proposed by the Allies.

The Communists have so far failed to come up with any recommendations of their own but it seems likely they will propose the Soviet Union - which would be totally unacceptable to the Allies.

Although the Soviet Union has not intervened militarily in the Korean conflict, it has offered political backing for North Korea and China.

On 27 November 1951 the two sides provisionally agreed on the 38th parallel as the demarcation line between North and South Korea.

Fighting has continued since then. Figures for the past month show the Allies have lost more aircraft than in any other month since the war began in June 1950.

Allied airmen shot down 31 enemy jet fighters in January - but in the same period the United Nations has lost 52 aircraft. Most of the planes were brought down by ground fire.

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