GEN - US diplomats on way to see plane crew

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bbc riday, 6 April, 2001, 13:14 GMT 14:14 UK

Diplomats to meet spy plane crew s US diplomats have now left for a meeting with the crew of the stranded US spy plane being held in southern China - after some confusion about whether it would go ahead.

The meeting - only the second since the plane was forced down on Sunday - had been due to start at 4pm local time (0800GMT).

But a statement from the US embassy in Beijing said the diplomats, led by Brigadier General Neal Sealock, were in the same vicinity as the crew members, but had not been allowed to see them.

The 21 men and three women are at a secret location in Haikon, the capital of Hainan Island.

The crew have been detained there since their EP-3 surveillance plane was forced to land following a collision with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea.

The Chinese plane crashed into the sea and the pilot is missing, presumed dead.

Fresh talks

The US diplomats last met the crew for 40 minutes on Tuesday evening, reporting that they were "in good health and high spirits".

Observers earlier said they were encouraged by the announcement that a third meeting would be held on Saturday.

The announcement of Friday's meeting came came as both Chinese and American leaders took a more conciliatory approach over the six-day crisis.

The Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, repeated his demand that the US apologise for the mid-air collision.

"I have visited many countries and I see that when people have an accident, the two groups involved... always say excuse me," Mr Jiang said, speaking in Santiago, Chile at the start of a 12-day Latin American tour.

Mr Jiang added that Chinese officials were exasperated by continued US surveillance flights.

"American planes come to the edge of our country and they don't say excuse me - this sort of conduct is not acceptable in any country."

The US has released video footage from a previous surveillance flight showing how close Chinese fighter planes were to their aircraft.

Washington is refusing to say sorry for something it does not admit responsibility for, although on Thursday President George W Bush did express regret for the accident.

"I regret that a Chinese pilot is missing and I regret one of their airplanes is lost," Mr Bush said.

It was his third and most conciliatory statement about the crisis in three successive days.

The BBC's Duncan Hewitt in Hainan says that while the Chinese Government will take Mr Bush's expression of regret seriously, it is also under pressure from public opinion which is opposed to US surveillance flights.

-- Anonymous, April 06, 2001


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