The structural analysis of liquid LiNbO3 near the melting point has been carried out by means of the energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXD). The present EDXD analysis allowed us to give the high-resolution radial distribution function (RDF) of the liquid LiNbO3 at 1550 K by obtaining the experimental interference function in the large wave vector region over 200 nm(-1). The rather distorted NbO6 units with a disparity in the first Nb-O atomic pairs were confirmed in liquid LiNbO3. This readily indicates a cluster composed of NbO6, octahedra with the strong cation-cation repulsion. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.