There was no indication the parties in the dispute would resume formal negotiations, although after the meeting Slater said he would recommend a federal mediator talk to the airline and its pilots.

Northwest's 6,200 pilots have been off the job since early Saturday. The strike has inconvenienced thousands of passengers, especially those who rely on Northwest service through its key hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis.

Slater also dampened speculation that president Bill Clinton would use his legal authority to order the pilots back to work for a 60-day cooling off period in time for the busy travel period over the upcoming Labour Day long weekend.

Slater said Clinton still believed it was up to the negotiating parties to reachagreement without federal intervention under the Railway Labour Act which governs major transportation disputes.

``An agreement would be in the best interests of the parties and the American public,'' Slater told reporters.

Northwest spokesman Don Foley said even if the dispute ended immediately, it would be very difficult for Northwest to resume its 1,700 flights serving 150,000 passengers a day by this Friday.

Foley said the ball was now in the court of Federal Mediation Board chairwoman Maggie Jacobsen. ``We don't know if there will be further talks,'' he said.

Jacobsen has previously said both the airline and the pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots' Association (ALPA) must be ready to compromise before any meaningful resumption of negotiations can begin.

ALPA's Northwest branch chairman, Steve Zoller, said the union was ready to talk but agreed that future negotiations were uncertain. ``It's really in the hands of the Mediation Board,'' Zoller said.

Jacobsen was not immediately availablefor comment on Tuesday evening on the latest developments.

Slater emphasised that his meeting with the parties was not a resumption of negotiations but rather an attempt to determine what it would take for negotiations to resume.

``I believe our conversations were helpful,'' he said.

Aides to Slater said he met separately with the two sides before gathering them all together in his office at department of transportation headquarters.

Northwest was represented by its chief executive John Dasburg and senior vice- president for corporate affairs Ben Hirst.

Air Line Pilots' Association president Randy Babbitt and Zoller represented the pilots, who struck the carrier after 23 months of negotiations failed to yield a new contract.

The pilots are trying to recoup concessions they made when the airline was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in 1993. Northwest has said the pilots' salary demands, which would eclipse salaries at Northwest's three larger competitors, are too large for the smallerairline.

Northwest earlier on Tuesday said it was cancelling its 1,700 daily flights for Thursday as it continued its policy of officially announcing cancellations with two days notice.

The airline also said it had begun to temporarily lay off some flight dispatchers and meteorologists.

Northwest's stock edged up 19 cents to $28 on the Nasdaq market, just above its 52-week low of $27.625.