Further signs that the Chinese military was taking a harder line than the political leadership over the surveillance plane crisis emerged in the main army newspaper, the People's Liberation Army Daily, which demanded at the weekend that Washington take responsibility for the incident and apologise to the Chinese government and people.
"Frequent military surveillance activities along China's coast do not have a good and peaceful objective; rather they are clearly hostile in nature," an editorial said.
The Chinese Vice-Premier, Mr Qian Qichen, in a letter to Mr Bush over the weekend, said Beijing was "dissatisfied" with his expression of regret, adding an apology was of "the utmost importance".
He added: "Up to now the American attitude is still unacceptable to the Chinese side, and the Chinese people are extremely dissatisfied with this."