US officials prepared for a third meeting with the 24 crew of a US spy plane on Hainan island on Saturday after the reports said there is progress in talks on their return.
"We are awaiting word on when we will be able to see the crew," US defence attache Brigadier General Neal Sealock told reporters in Haikou, capital of the southern island province of Hainan.
"We were promised to see the crew today, I am positive that will take place," he said.
Washington and Beijing are now working on a letter containing an agreed account of how the Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter off the coast of South China, and an expression of regret for a missing Chinese pilot.
"We're working hard to bring them home through intensive discussions with the Chinese government. We think we're making progress," Bush said on Friday in Washington.
Sealock told Bush by telephone after the second visit of crews that it would "make you feel real proud. They look real good."
US officials in Haikou went shopping for contact lens solution and toiletries for the crew on Saturday and said they hoped to pass them e-mails from friends and relatives. The crew have been receiving catered meals.
(China Daily 04/07/2001)
