US and Chinese officials have exchanged a draft letter of regret for the aircraft collision earlier this week over the South China Sea, the New York Times reported Saturday.

The daily reported that the letter also would initiate an investigation by Chinese and American military officers, and clear the way toward returning of the 24 US spy plane crew, administration officials and senators briefed on the negotiations said.

It reportedly will bear the signature of Admiral Joseph Prueher, the American ambassador to Beijing, rather than that of US President George W. Bush.

Officials from both countries hope to settle on a wording that satisfy Chinese people and allow American officials to say they got the crew members and the plane out of China.

The letter also would establish annual meetings for Chinese and US officers to discuss ways to minimize tensions in the Pacific.

But it also contains a clause allowing emergency meetings of officers "for the purpose of consulting on specific matters of concern relating to the activities at sea of their respective maritime and air forces."

"The commission is an empty shell, but we can put a motor in it and drive it to the shore," a senior administration official told the Times. "But the hard part of the letter is negotiating the language, and that's still under way."

A senior US senator Friday said the letter would reflect a joint position and should bring the crisis to a close.

"We're moving toward a letter that will contain exchanges of views, first at the level of the ambassador and the foreign minister, but that letter is being reviewed both by our president and the president of China, so it will reflect a common understanding," said Republican Senator John Warner.

Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, made clear that the proposal would not include the US apology for the incident China demands.

On the issue of the joint commission, Warner said after a briefing by State Department and Defense Department officials that the two sides also hoped to set up a meeting of experts to probe the collision.

"There will be established some type of meeting framework (in conjunction) with the letter, and that framework will enable the experts, those who are most knowledgeable about aircraft and other matters, to sit down and assess the facts," he said.

US officials hoped Saturday to hold a third meeting with the crew of a spy plane kept for nearly a week in China as diplomats worked around the clock to find a face-saving exit from the crisis.

(China Daily 04/07/2001)