China has signalled an end to the wrangle over a US spy plane held on Hainan Island by announcing yesterday it had accepted a US proposal to dismantle the aircraft and send it home in pieces.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman repeated China's rejection of US demands to fly out the top-secret EP-3 surveillance aircraft, which made an emergency landing on Hainan after a collision with a Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea on April 1st.
"The United States has submitted a proposal to take apart the plane and take it back to the US," Mr Zhu Bangzao told a news conference.
Beijing has said allowing the $80 million aircraft to fly out would be a national humiliation.
By forcing the US to crate up the aircraft for a long and expensive journey home, China is seeking to humble the US military and appease a fiercely nationalistic public outraged by the collision, in which the pilot of the Chinese fighter jet was killed.
Chinese technicians have already scoured the aircraft for secrets that the 24-member US crew failed to destroy during the minutes before they landed with a mangled propellor and nose cone ripped off.
China detained the crew for 11 tense days and only freed them after Washington said it was "very sorry" that the Chinese pilot died and that the US aircraft landed without authorisation.
Mr Zhu made it clear there were still obstacles to be overcome. "The two sides will continue to negotiate on the technical details of returning the plane," he said. "We do not agree to flying the plane out of China. This is impossible."
US officials said yesterday they were still discussing with Beijing how to return the aircraft, despite Beijing reports that an accord had been reached. "We're still talking with them on modalities for moving the plane, and nothing is set or definitive," a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.