The United States and China have very good relations and could move beyond their dispute over aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk's recent aborted attempt to have a stop in Hong Kong, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Thursday.

 

"I think the president believes we have good relations with China. We work cooperatively with China on so many different issues. This is one small incident. And in the big picture, in the big scheme of things, we have very good relations," Perino said at a White House news briefing.

 

"We have been in communication with the Chinese. We are asking them to clarify the reasons that the Kitty Hawk was turned back," she said. "I think we will get it (clarification), and then we'll be able to move beyond this," she added.

 

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also suggested on Thursday that the incident would not spill into other areas of the U.S.-China relations.

 

"The U.S.-China relationship is a broad, mature, deep relationship that is constantly evolving, changing, and in some ways getting better and in some areas we have differences," McCormack said, responding to a question at a news briefing in the State Department.

 

"But it is fundamentally a relationship between two important world powers," he said. "So where we have bumps in the road, we work through them. We deal with each other in a straightforward manner."

 

The USS Kitty Hawk was due to arrive in Hong Kong on Nov. 21 to give its crew four days leave to spend Thanksgiving with their families.

 

China refused the ship access before changing its mind and allowing it to dock "out of humanitarian considerations."

 

However, the United States said it was too late and the ship carried on to Japan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2007)