The government has decided to seek talks with North Korea in March in hopes of achieving a breakthrough on issues surrounding the abduction of Japanese nationals, including bringing the relatives of five former abductees to Japan, government sources said Sunday.

The decision follows surprise bilateral talks last week that saw no significant progress.

The government has judged it would be difficult to achieve any concrete results on the abduction issue during the six-way talks on the North's nuclear ambitions, scheduled to start Feb. 25 in Beijing, according to the sources.