NEW YORK -- The NFL and its locked-out referees got nowhere in negotiations Tuesday, despite facing a midweek deadline to reach a deal or go into the regular season with the replacements who worked last week's preseason games.

After saying last weekend that there was a good chance of a deal, hopes seemed to be fading.

Talks broke off Wednesday after a two-hour, 30-minute session at league headquarters. And according to referees union head Tom Condon, there was no meaningful progress.

Condon said he planned to fly back today to his home in Kansas City and have a conference call Wednesday night with the union's executive committee. He said he would be available for further talks on Thursday.

Condon wouldn't even describe the talks as "negotiations" between two sides that are from 50 to 75 percent apart in their salary proposals.

The same opinion came from the NFL.

"I'm not optimistic because of how far apart I know we are," Dallas owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday. "I'm disappointed, but I'm also very pleased with how the officials that are coming in performed this past weekend. We've had a chance as a league to review each performance and overall it was outstanding."

Jeff Pash, the chief negotiator for the NFL, said Sunday that unless there was a deal in place by "late Wednesday or early Thursday," the league would continue the lockout. Officials would have to know by then what games they were to do and make travel plans.

The NFL also canceled its annual meeting of referees, downfield officials (field judges, side judges and back judges) and replay officials, scheduled for Friday in Dallas. That meeting always has been held two days before the season opens.

High-ranking NFL executives, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also have said if there was no agreement by the start of the regular season, the lockout was likely to continue well into the season.

The replacement officials already have been guaranteed $2,000 a game for four games, regardless of whether they work them or not.

Perhaps the pessimism is a favorable omen.

For two weeks, negotiators have been saying they were optimistic about reaching an agreement. That's been particularly true of Condon, who has said most negotiations come down to the last minute.

The NFL has said it won't add to its offer that would double the salaries of most officials by 2003. The union counters that its demands are justified because the officials have been working for the same salary since 1994.

The two sides also use "apples and oranges" numbers to boost their positions.

The union claims that its officials make far less annually than officials in baseball, the NBA and the NHL. But the NFL notes that NFL officials work 16 games a season compared to 70 in basketball and hockey and 140 in baseball.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.