The US and its allies have sought punishment for North Korea's defiant launch of a rocket that apparently fizzled into the Pacific, holding an emergency UN meeting in response to the "provocative act" some believe was a long-range missile test.
Minutes after lift-off, Japan requested the emergency United Nations Security Council session in New York.
Council members met for three hours, seeking above all a unified response, but broke up without issuing a customary preliminary statement of condemnation.
Diplomats privy to the closed-door talks said China, Russia, Libya and Vietnam were concerned about further alienating and destabilising North Korea.
US President Barack Obama, faced with his first global security crisis, called for an international response and condemned North Korea for threatening the peace and stability of nations "near and far."
US and South Korean officials claim the entire rocket, including whatever payload it carried, ended up in the ocean but many world leaders fear the launch indicates the capacity to fire a long-range missile.
Pyongyang claims it launched an experimental communications satellite into orbit and that it is transmitting data and patriotic songs.
"North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles," Obama said in Prague. "It creates instability in their region, around the world. This provocation underscores the need for action, not just this afternoon in the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."
The US Britain, France and Japan drafted a proposal for a resolution that could be adopted by the end of the week. It is aimed at toughening existing economic sanctions by "naming and shaming" individuals and entities, council diplomats said.
Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, the council's president, said the council would reconvene "as soon as possible" to reach consensus on what action to take.
