Aircraft carriers and guided missile destroyers moved into the waters near New York and Washington after President George Bush placed the US military on its highest alert status.

Military officials were today being briefed by a team of American technicians who have inspected a downed US Navy spy plane in China, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command said.

US Navy officers met today with local Japanese Government officials to explain possible disciplinary action facing the skipper of a submarine that sank a Japanese high school fishing training vessel.

The commander of the USS Greenville has been blamed for the fatal collision with a Japanese trawler.

Hope has dimmed of finding alive any of the Japanese fishermen and students missing after their ship was rammed and sunk by a submarine.