Diplomats meeting with captured spy crew delayed

US diplomats planned meeting with the captured spy plane’s crew on a Chinese island was delayed without explanation today.

The US embassy in Beijing retracted its earlier report that the meeting had started.

Diplomats who had been scheduled to meet with the air crew at 4 pm (9am Irish time) were still waiting nearly four hours later, the embassy said.

American diplomats in Haikou, the capital of Hainan island, had left their hotel in a motorcade led by a car from the paramilitary People’s Armed Police.

Four of the seven diplomats were in military uniform.

Police stopped over the cars of reporters who tried to follow the motorcade.

American officials were allowed to meet the crew of 21 men and three women on Tuesday, more than two days after the collision. They said the crew appeared to be healthy and in good spirits.

US Ambassador Joseph Prueher. said US and Chinese officials were in close contact discussing the incident that began on Sunday when the American EC-3E collided in mid-air with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. The Chinese pilot is missing and feared dead.

"We are in fairly intense talks," the ambassador said in Beijing. "We are working it hard."

China has blamed the US plane for the collision and has questioned the crew. It is demanding a formal apology for the incident.

The United States has declined to apologise, though President George W Bush and other top officials have expressed regret over the loss of the Chinese pilot.

Bush has demanded that China release the US crew or risk damaging US-Chinese relations.