Tokyo, Mar 16: Japan plans to extend its economic sanctions against North Korea unless it makes progress on nuclear disarmament and accounts for its past abductions of Japanese nationals, according to news reports.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a group of relatives of the abductees, who were taken in the 1970s and 1980s, that the government planned to extend sanctions for six more months if progress was not made, Kyodo News agency reported late Saturday.

``Barring progress or developments (in North Korea's response), we will make an appropriate judgment by taking full account of the circumstances'' regarding the abductions and the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, Machimura was quoted as saying by Kyodo.

Japanese business daily Nikkei also carried a similar report Sunday.

Officials at the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Ministry were not available for comment Sunday.

The sanctions, first imposed after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon on Oct. 9, 2006, and extended twice since, were to expire in mid-April.

The sanctions include closing Japanese ports to North Korean ships and banning the import of North Korean goods.

The abduction issue is a main sticking point for Japan and North Korea, which have no diplomatic ties.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens and sent five of them home, saying the remaining eight were dead. Japan has demanded proof of the deaths, and says more of its citizens may have been taken.

The six-way nuclear talks also involve China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.