its flight attendants union failed to reach an agreement in their latest round of mediated contract talks, the company and the union said Friday.

Two days of talks had been facilitated by the National Mediation Board at its headquarters in Washington. No new talks were scheduled after they recessed Friday.

"We are on the back burner again,'' Leslie Mayo, spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said.

The airline said it was disappointed that the negotiations had not resulted in a tentative agreement but would continue to explore alternatives for narrowing the few remaining open issues until the talks resumed. Neither side would comment on details of the negotiations.

The union has been pressing the federal board to release it from mediation so flight attendants can prepare for a possible strike.

The flight attendants' contract became amendable in 1998. A tentative agreement was rejected in 1999, and mediated talks began in September and have continued on and off since.

The union voted overwhelmingly in February to authorise a strike. The American attendants and their counterparts at UAL Corp.'s United Airlines are the lone remaining unions threatening to walk off the job at major US airlines this year.