The United States was seeking a fourth meeting with the crew of a downed US spy plane held in southern China's Hainan island Sunday, and diplomats urged Beijing to begin discussions to arrange one.
"We are waiting for a call... We have asked for a fourth meeting," a US official in Haikou, Hainan, told AFP.
US officials met with the crew just early Sunday morning for an hour, the third such visit that China has allowed since the EP-3 surveillance aircraft made an emergency landing on the island after it collided with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet a week earlier.
The pilot of the Chinese jet parachuted after the mid-air collision over international waters and is still missing prompting Beijing to take the 24-member crew of the US plane into custody and demand Washington to apologize for the incident.
(China Daily 04/08/2001)
