China and the US have shown no signs of backing down on their positions over the spy plane collision in advance of talks to be held today in Beijing.
A high-powered US negotiating team arrived in the city yesterday for the talks, agreed as part of the deal which led to the release of 24 American air crew after 11 days' detention on Hainan Island.
The discussions, which will be held at the Chinese foreign ministry, promise to be tense, with China insisting yesterday it will be demanding that the US stop its air surveillance off the South China coast and the US saying it will not end its surveillance missions.
The meeting comes the day before China will attempt to prevent a US resolution criticising its human rights records from coming to a vote at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
The head of the US delegation, Acting Under-secretary of Defence for Policy, Mr Pete Virga, arrived in Beijing yesterday morning. He would not comment other than to confirm his delegation was meeting the Chinese government.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman yesterday reiterated the Chinese position that the collision between a Chinese F 8 fighter and an American EP 3 spy plane was caused by the US aircraft, which later made an emergency landing on China's southern island of Hainan.
She said the Chinese delegation, made up of foreign ministry and military personnel, will be demanding an end to all surveillance flights.
The spokeswoman said China also had the right to carry out a full investigation into the US military aircraft packed with sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment which is still on Hainan island. Top of the US priority list is a return of the multimillion-dollar aircraft.
Chinese State media yesterday continued to assert the US aircraft had violated international law and angrily attacked US statements blaming the Chinese pilot for the accident on April 1st.
The Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, has said that the Chinese pilot, Wang Wie, now presumed dead, was "Protector of the Sea and Sky" and he has asked the Chinese military to emulate his example.
Wang has been hailed a "revolutionary martyr" by Chinese leaders.
The White House has made it clear that the US team in today's talks would pull no punches in telling their Chinese counterparts that Wang was responsible for the collision.
The White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, said the US team would "ask tough questions" about the manner in which Chinese fighters "dangerously intercepted" the US flight and ask for the return of the spy plane. He insisted the surveillance flights would resume but the timing was unclear.