US diplomats were Sunday pushing for unrestricted daily access to the crew of a spy plane detained in southern China, as negotiations for their release inched forward.
While the 24 crew members of the EP-3 Aries surveillance plane spent their eighth day in Chinese custody on the island of Hainan, diplomatic bargaining for a solution to the stand-off continued in Beijing and Washington.
US military attache Brigadier General Neal Sealock, who met the crew for a third time in the early hours of Sunday morning in the Hainan provincial capital Haikou, said he had asked for two visits every day.
"We are working hard for unfettered daily access to the crew," Sealock told journalists at his hotel in Haikou.
Sealock said the crew, 21 men and three women, had borne up well since their aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan on April 1 following a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.
He said the crew was in "high spirits" and "very good health."
"Health and welfare issues" were the main topic of the meeting, another US official told AFP, while it was unclear whether US officials broached the sensitive topic of how the collision occurred.
The pilot of the Chinese jet parachuted into the South China Sea after the collision in international airspace and despite a massive search and rescue mission, has not been found.
China says the US plane deliberately rammed the Chinese fighter jet and it has demanded a full apology for the incident before it will consider releasing the plane or the crew.
The United States has expressed "regret" over the loss of the Chinese pilot but has insisted it will not apologize.
US National Security spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman said in Washington access to the crew and crippled plane would provide key details on the circumstances of the collision.
"We can't know with precision what happened up there until we are able to speak to the other witnesses to that, and that is our crew members.
"It would also be helpful to get access to the plane and any recording equipment," she said.
US officials have made the release of the crew the priority in talks with the Chinese, with the administration of President George W. Bush saying Saturday it was "hopeful" the crew would be home "soon and safely."
US Ambassador to Beijing Joseph Prueher told journalists outside the embassy Sunday he was waiting for a call from the Chinese foreign ministry to resume negotiations.
"We will interrupt whatever we are doing to talk with them," he said as he headed off for a Palm Sunday church service.
However, by Sunday evening, US officials said that nothing had been arranged for further discussions or a fourth meeting between Sealock's team in Haikou and the crew.
American officials who met alone with the crew Sunday said the servicemen and women had been cheered by e-mails from home, fresh toiletries, t-shirts and nuggets of the latest US sports news.
Meanwhile the wife of missing Chinese pilot Wang Wei arrived in Beijing for medical treatment after an emotional collapse that she has suffered since her husband disappeared, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Yuan Guoqin, Wang's wife, met Defense Minister Chi Haotian on Saturday, receiving expressions of concern for her husband from China's highest leadership, it said.
Earlier Yuan sent a letter condemning the incident to President Bush, calling him a "coward" for refusing to apologize.
The Chinese press also stepped up its verbal attacks on the United States, blaming Washington for the incident and criticizing the Bush administration for its plan to build a missile defence shield, weapons sales to Taiwan and criticism of China's human rights record -- HAIKOU, China (AFP)
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