The strike, involving 17,700 miners and six coal producers in seven states, began on May 10 after fruitless talks over job security, health benefits and work rules.

The Americans announced on Friday that they were heading home after three days of fruitless talks.

Last year, after repeatedly fruitless talks, American trade officials seemed to have given up on China's entry anytime soon in the organization, which sets global trading rules.

After 20 months of fruitless talks, Mr. Kantor insisted, Washington was driven to threaten retaliation.

He told me on the phone of his fruitless talk with Miss Stahl, and I thought it well to come.

The American officials said the mission was intended to assuage the anxieties of both the Israelis and the Palestinians after nearly 20 months of fruitless talks.

The local president, John Ambrosino, emerged from fruitless talks at City Hall on Wednesday and said that a strike was all but inevitable.

Assessing the Madrid meetings, officials here saw no surprises in their fruitless talks with Syria.

Spira and his allies spent most of 1979 gathering information and in fruitless private talks with Revlon.

Fehr, the union leader, described what he saw as the union's dilemma in the fruitless talks.