Beijing - China insisted yesterday there were no plans to allow the damaged US navy spy plane stranded on Hainan Island to fly home, writes Miriam Donohoe.
However, a Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that both countries were working through diplomatic channels to resolve the row over the return of the $80 million EP-3 surveillance aircraft, which has been on Hainan Island since a collision with a Chinese jet fighter on April 1st.
On Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesman denied the US had abandoned the idea of getting the aircraft back. He said the US has been working on all options, including the possibility of taking it apart and flying it out in a large transport plane.
Meanwhile, China also signalled yesterday that it would continue to refuse to deal with a US special co-ordinator for Tibet despite reports of US plans to appoint the highest ranking official ever to the post.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tibet was an inseparable part of Chinese territory and a purely internal affair of China's in which no country had the right to interfere.