A senior official announced Thursday that a proposed meeting of the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia has been canceled.

Seoul's Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said he had been informed that it would be difficult to convene the meeting because of differences in schedules.

It had been anticipated that diplomats at that meeting would discuss organizing a new round of nuclear negotiations with North Korea.

Minister Lee said that, in light of the five-way meeting being canceled, Seoul would return to its original plan of setting up talks between Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Yoon has been in New York since Sunday to attend a meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. He is scheduled to address the Thursday afternoon session.