COPENHAGEN Danish trade unions and employers were due to resume talks on Sunday to find a way out of the country's biggest labor conflict in 13 years, officials said. Close to half a million private sector workers a fifth of the workforce and a tenth of the population have been on strike or locked out since last Monday. Talks to end the dispute broke up at 3.a.m.

(0100 GMT) and were scheduled to resume later on Sunday after separate meetings of the union and employer groups' executive boards. The negotiators' task is to find a solution by midnight (2200 GMT) giving workers more holiday without raising employers' wage costs excessively. Officials on both sides confirmed that the earlier agreed deadline was unchanged, but they declined comment on whether they had made progress.

Ritzau news agency said the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions and the Danish Employers Confederation had asked the national labor market arbitrator to help them through the final phase of what it called difficult talks. Analysts have said that the centre-left government, which has stayed firmly on the sidelines, is likely to end the dispute by legislation if the negotiators fail to reach a deal.

Many big factories have closed, while ports and Copenhagen Airport are at near standstill. Building sites stand empty, lorries and vans as well as many buses and ferries are out of operation. The strike has been estimated to be costing Denmark one billion crowns ($150 million) per day in lost output. (Reuter)