An NHL executive accused the players’ association of conducting “a charade” and said the union has no interest in working out a new labor deal before a lockout would be imposed in three weeks.

The sides concluded a two-day negotiating session in Ottawa but came away seemingly further apart than ever. The current collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15, and more and more it appears as though a lockout will occur before any common ground is reached.

“We want to move the process along. They’re looking to stall,” NHL executive vice president Bill Daly told The Associated Press. “It’s clear that they’re engaged in a charade. They want to fill the time between now and Sept. 15, force a lockout and take their chances.

“That’s unfortunate for the sport, unfortunate for the players, and certainly unfortunate for our fans.”

NHLPA senior director Ted Saskin disputed the claims in an interview with the AP and said that it’s the NHL which has been getting ready for a lockout since 1998 in order to get an economic system based on a salary cap.

“To suggest that players are trying to get locked out is absolutely ludicrous,” Saskin said. “It’s obviously (commissioner Gary Bettman) approach to try use his lockout to put economic pressure on the players to try to force them to agree to a system they would never negotiate across the table.”

The union has vowed it won’t accept a salary cap.

In it’s only proposal since negotiations on a new deal began last October, the union has put forth a system that includes a luxury tax, a salary rollback, and revenue sharing.

The NHL is not interested in that type of deal, and Daly said that the NHLPA has known it for a long time.

During recent negotiating sessions, the NHL has proposed six concepts it feels could lead to a solution. The NHLPA rejected them all, saying that each is predicated on a salary cap.

“From everything they’ve been saying, the only thing that they’re going to accept is a salary cap, and no, we’re not going to be proposing a salary cap,” Saskin said.

Daly said only one of the six proposed NHL concepts involves a cap. But now he feels it is the NHLPA’s turn to come up with a new idea.

Instead, he says the players’ association has only been conducting fruitless talks.

“It’s been 15 months and we’re now three weeks away from the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement and we have absolutely nothing from them,” Daly said. “Meanwhile, we’ve made six proposals to them which they rejected after asking questions for almost six hours.

“Each of which would’ve solved our problems, maintained an average player’s salary of $1.3 million, guaranteed the players more than 50 percent of our revenues and we still would’ve seen multimillion dollar contracts in the sport.”

This latest session was the fourth in seven weeks. But for the second time in two weeks, the talks took what Saskin called a side step.

Instead of hammering away at issues, talks about specific team finances were held to try to establish each club’s operating practices. Nothing yet has been revealed that could be used to formulate new proposals.

“It’s kind of late for a side step, don’t you think?” said Daly, the NHL’s chief legal officer. “I can’t even tell you that we’re talking about detailed financial information about the teams. We’re talking about subject matters that we’ve talked about with them ad nauseam over the last 51/2 years which, if they really felt they had an interest in, I think they could have raised with us and discussed with us earlier in the process.”

Daly is less optimistic that a deal will be in place before the NHL would be shut down, a day after the championship game of the World Cup of Hockey in Toronto.

“They’re not intent on negotiating a deal with us,” he said. “They’re intent on forcing a work stoppage and taking their chances.”

Saskin said Daly’s remarks were different from what was expressed when the sides met at the negotiating table.

“It’s obviously inconsistent with what they’re saying in the room. … They know that they are going to trigger the lockout to try to put the force on us,” Saskin said.

“What they’re trying to do is make union leadership or the players into the bad guys when they’re the ones who are going to start the lockout.”

Saskin still wouldn’t give a timetable as to when the union would present another proposal.

Bettman said earlier this month that a luxury-tax system is not something that will work for the NHL.

The current deal ended a lockout nine years ago, and the agreement has been extended twice.

That previous dispute lasted 103 days and cut the 1994-95 season nearly in half. Owners have been preparing for another potential lockout for the last several years, and have built up a $300 million war chest.

AP-ES-08-26-04 1827EDT