Talks between China and the US to resolve outstanding issues in the spy plane controversy broke up without reaching any conclusion in Beijing last night.
Washington said it saw no point in a second round unless Beijing was prepared to engage in a more "productive" discussion.
Chinese officials declined to comment on any progress in the negotiations.
The talks were agreed as part of a deal that led to the release of 24 US aircrew detained by China on Hainan Island for 11 days after their EP-3 aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter jet.
Sources said neither side appeared prepared to compromise on key issues. The US is insisting it gets back its $80 million aircraft, still stranded on Hainan Island, while China is looking for a reassurance from the US that they will stop reconnaissance flights off the South China coast.
The head of the Chinese delegation, Mr Lu Shumin, said on state television yesterday that China had plenty of evidence to prove that the US aircraft caused the mid-air collision.
Expressing disappointment, the US indicated China had avoided crucial issues and said no more talks would be set until Beijing was willing to discuss the return of the EP-3.
The White House National Security Council spokeswoman, Ms Mary Ellen Countryman, said the US ambassador to Beijing, Adm Joseph Prueher, would meet a Chinese foreign ministry official.
Yesterday's talks began in the Chinese Foreign Ministry at 3 p.m. and lasted for three hours.
Two Chinese protesters staged a small demonstration outside the Foreign Ministry and chanted anti-US slogans. One waved a model of the Chinese F-8 fighter. Police tore a paper sign denouncing "superpower arrogance" from the other protester.
In Geneva, the UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday shelved a US resolution criticising China, approving as in past years a motion by Beijing to take no action on the text.
In Washington, a US official said yesterday that President Bush has chosen Mr Clark Randt Jnr, a Yale classmate and expert on Chinese business, to succeed Adm Prueher as US ambassador to China.
Mr Randt is a Hong Kong-based lawyer who speaks Mandarin and former commercial attache to the US embassy in China.
Adm Prueher was appointed to the post by President Clinton in 1999. The Bush administration had made it known that it intended to replace him.
Patrick Smyth adds:
President Bush's national security team has advised him to defer the sale to Taiwan of the advanced Aegis missile system, according to a report in yesterday's New York Times.
Mr Bush is due to decide this week the scale and contents of an arms package to Taiwan and is under strong pressure within his party, particularly in the wake of the crisis over the spy plane, to include the Aegis, which is regarded as highly provocative by mainland China.
Beijing opposes all the arms sales but argues that the radar will be particularly destabilising to the regional security balance.
Under legislation governing arms sales to Taiwan Mr Bush is supposed to make a decision purely on the basis of Taiwan's strategic defence needs and so the recommendation by his national security advisers is particularly significant - it argues that Taiwan does not yet have the technical capacity to use the new system properly and that delivery should be deferred.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin (74) had music on his mind yesterday during a visit to Venezuela. He joined his host President Hugo Chavez and Spanish singer Julio Iglesias in a boisterous but slightly ragged rendition of the Italian song, O Sole Mio.