China said on today it would grant US inspectors access to an American spy plane stranded on Hainan Island, and US Vice President Mr Richard Cheney hailed the move as very positive.
It was the first concrete evidence of progress in the spy plane row, and was all the more significant since China-US ties have been further strained by a US package of arms for Taiwan announced last week.
The EP-3 surveillance plane made an emergency landing on Hainan on April 1st after a midair collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter. It has been parked on a military air base ever since with its nose cone ripped off and propellers mangled.
"Having completed its investigation and evidence collection involving the US plane, and in view of international precedents in handling such issues, the Chinese side has decided to allow the US side to inspect its plane at the Lingshui Airport," the official Xinhua news agency said.
Xinhua also said that, during talks on the spy plane incident in Beijing this month, the United States had agreed to consider making unspecified payments .
In Washington, Mr Cheney said he was heartened by the Chinese announcement, but he emphatically denied that Washington had agreed to any compensation beyond costs of recovering the plane.
"I see it as an encouraging sign that they are willing to proceed," Mr Cheney told Fox Newstoday .
"The fact that they have now announced that they are willing to have US personnel go in and look at the aircraft and assess what it is going to take to get it back, I think is very positive," he said.
"We will pay whatever costs are associated with recovering the aircraft in terms of transportation, barge, cranes, whatever is required to get it back out that is legitimately something we ought to pay," he said.