Context :

Aims : The CANGAROO-II telescope observed sub-TeV gamma-ray emission from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 .
The emission region was extended with a radial size of 0.3-0.6 degree .
On the contrary , H.E.S.S could not confirm this emission and gave upper limits at the level of the CANGAROO-II flux .
In order to resolve this discrepancy , we analyzed new observational results for NGC 253 by CANGAROO-III and also assessed the results by CANGAROO-II .

Methods : Observation was made with three telescopes of the CANGAROO-III in October 2004 .
We analyzed three-fold coincidence data by the robust Fisher Discriminant method to discriminate gamma ray events from hadron events .

Results : The result by the CANGAROO-III was negative . The upper limit of gamma ray flux was 5.8 % Crab at 0.58 TeV for point-source assumption .
In addition , the significance of the excess flux of gamma-rays by the CANGAROO-II was lowered to less than 4 sigma after assessing treatment of malfunction of photomultiplier tubes .

Conclusions :