China Reveals Spy Plane Deal, but U.S. Declares Talks Go On

China has reached an agreement with the United States to have a stranded American spy plane disassembled and shipped home, a Chinese official said Thursday. But U.S. officials quickly asserted that there was no done deal.

“The United States has submitted a proposal to take apart the plane and take it back,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters here. “The Chinese side has agreed to that.”

In Washington, however, Bush administration officials said the U.S. still hopes to be allowed to repair the damaged Navy EP-3 plane and fly it out of China.

In separate briefings, State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker and Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said discussions with the Chinese are continuing over the details of returning the aircraft.

Reeker said the administration was “prepared, if necessary,” to disassemble the plane. However, he said, “as we have said before, our strong preference remains to repair and fly out our airplane. That’s obviously the fastest and most efficient way to return the aircraft to the U.S.”

Asked about the Chinese announcement that a deal had been struck, Quigley said: “I can’t explain for you why that was said . . . but we checked and double-checked and triple-checked over the course of the morning and there has just been no final agreement as to the methodology by which the plane is removed.”

The turboprop EP-3, a sophisticated electronic surveillance plane used in reconnaissance missions off the Chinese coast, has been on a military airstrip on China’s southern Hainan island since April 1, when it made an emergency landing after a midair collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

The jet’s pilot died as a result of the accident, and Chinese authorities detained the EP-3’s 24 crew members for 11 days. The dispute dragged Sino-U.S. relations down to their lowest point in two years.

Since the crew’s release, a major sticking point has been the fate of the $80-million American aircraft, which was packed with advanced electronic eavesdropping equipment and classified data.

Washington repeatedly has expressed hope that U.S. technicians, who have inspected and assessed the plane’s damage, will be allowed to repair the EP-3 and fly it out under its own power. But Beijing consistently has ruled out that course of action, which many Chinese would regard as too humiliating after the plane was caught spying off their coast.

“We do not agree to flying the plane out of China,” Zhu said. “This is impossible.”

Details on how the disassembled plane would be shipped back, by air or sea, remained under negotiation, he said.

An agreement on the plane’s return to the U.S. would mark a small measure of progress in a bilateral relationship left floundering after repeated setbacks over the last two months.

In addition to the spy plane imbroglio, Washington and Beijing have clashed over proposed American arms sales to Taiwan and high-profile visits to the U.S. this week by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s political and spiritual leader, and by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian.

China has condemned both visits by men it regards as separatists intent on breaking up the motherland. The government here insists that Taiwan belongs to China and said the U.S. was “breaking its commitments” not to have diplomatic contact with the island.

“The new U.S. administration has gone back on its word,” Zhu said.

The U.S. government asserts that Chen’s meetings with members of Congress this week on his way to Latin America did not constitute diplomatic contact.

Meanwhile, concern in Washington is mounting over the fate of several American or U.S.-based scholars detained by Chinese authorities. Two have already been charged with spying.