THE US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, wound up a nine nation European and Asian "tour yesterday by conducting a series of talks with Chinese leaders which seem to have paved the way for further improvement in Sino US relations - though without any sign of a rumoured break"through on human rights.
The US Vice President, Mr Al Gore, would visit Beijing next month, Ms Albright said, and talks at official level on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would take place in the Chinese capital in mid March. The meetings took place between the cremation yesterday and the funeral service today of Deng Xiaoping, who died last Wednesday.
Ms Albright told a press conference that she found the Chinese officials she met "in deep mourning". She paid tribute to Deng as "a major figure in the history of this century".
The one issue on a lengthy agenda on which there was least give and take was Taiwan, US officials said. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province but the US supports its government with weapons sales. "It was the least creative part of the discussion," said the State Department spokesman, Mr Nicholas Burns.
Mr Burns played down a New York Times story that the US and China were on the brink of a breakthrough on human rights. The US is threatening to support a UN resolution condemning China for its human rights record unless there is progress from the Beijing side. He said however that Ms Albright would have talks with her European counterparts before the issue comes to a vote in Geneva this spring.
The newspaper said that under the possible deal China would agree to sign two key international covenants on human rights, release a representative group of at least eight dissidents and restart talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross for a programme of prison visits to determine the status of prisoners of conscience in China.
In return, Beijing could expect an end to the annual confrontation over its human rights record at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. This package has been under discussion between Beijing and Washington for months, US officials have said.
Ms Albright opened her remarks on human rights to the Chinese leaders by saying, "I'm going to be quite frank with you," according to Mr Burns. He added that the Chinese government had a "single digit" list of dissidents that the US presented last year, the majority of whom were still held in prison.
At her press conference just before midnight, Ms Albright expressed optimism about the future of US Chinese relations on the basis of her separate meetings with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, and President Jiang Zemin.
She said they discussed nuclear proliferation and the danger of promoting unprotected nuclear technology, human rights, China's bid for entry to the World Trade Organisation, mutual law enforcement efforts and terrorism, Hong Kong, Taiwan and North and South Korea.