Chinese defense minister: U.S. must accept responsibility

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BEIJING, China -- China's defense minister insisted that the United States take responsibility for the collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a U.S. Navy surveillance plane, the country's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Chi Haotian said the Chinese armed forces and people will not accept it if the U.S. government attempts to evade its responsibility, Xinhua reported.

China says on April 1 the U.S. plane veered into the Chinese F-8 jet that was intercepting it over the South China Sea, an area considered Chinese territory by Beijing but not by Washington. (See map locating incident.)

The U.S. says the Chinese pilot flew too close to the Navy aircraft, causing what U.S. officials are calling an "accident." The Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, is still missing after the collision, which sent his plane into the sea. Chinese search and rescue operations continued Saturday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military crew detained in China is in "very good spirits" and receiving gifts and e-mails from family and friends, a White House spokesman tells CNN.

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Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said U.S. President George W. Bush was briefed Saturday on the latest meeting between the crew and U.S. diplomats.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice -- who briefed Bush -- was briefed herself by Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, one of the diplomats who attended the hourlong meeting Sunday morning (Saturday afternoon ET) with the 24-member crew of the Navy EP-3 surveillance plane.

No Chinese officials were present at the meeting with the U.S. crew, Fleischer told reporters. One U.S. official said details of the U.S. plane's collision with a Chinese fighter jet were discussed, but did not elaborate.

Despite significant damage to the U.S. aircraft, its pilot was able to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan, where the crew and plane have been detained since the April 1 collision.

Saturday's meeting between U.S. diplomats and the crew was the third since the detainment began.

The official said the expectation was that there would be daily access to the crew as long as the standoff continues.

Sealock also told the crew members about developments in the Masters golf tournament, and of the baseball no-hitter pitched this week by Hideo Nomo of the Boston Red Sox, Fleischer said.

As the standoff approached the one-week mark, Fleischer described the president as "both concerned and persistent" and said he believed diplomatic efforts were making progress, despite tough words from the Chinese.

Bush has received a letter from the wife of the missing Chinese pilot calling his actions in the U.S.-China standoff "cowardly" and demanding a U.S. apology for the incident, officials said. No immediate response is expected, they added. (More on the letter to Bush.)

"The president's focus is on our diplomatic efforts to win the release of the crew," a White House official said.

Later, asked if Bush viewed the latest letter from Chinese officials as a setback to the diplomatic efforts, the official said, "No."

In that letter, Chinese Vice Premier Qien Qichen said U.S. statements of regret were not enough and held fast to China's demand for an outright U.S. apology.

Fleischer said there was no change in the administration's position that there would be no apology. "The United States is going to continue its diplomatic efforts to secure the release of the men and women of the crew," Fleischer said.

Ruan Guoqin, wife of missing Chinese pilot Wang Wei

"The president's view remains that we are at a very sensitive moment but that things are moving forward," a senior aide told CNN. "He is encouraged that the talks continue. Beyond that, it is best not to characterize things."

Washington and Beijing are now working on a letter containing an agreed account of how the collision occurred. The letter was expected to contain an expression of regret for the missing Chinese pilot but not the unqualified apology China has been demanding.

The U.S. ambassador to China Joseph Prueher attended two meetings with Chinese officials Saturday in Beijing. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said both sides were "exchanging papers and ideas" and expressed hope that negotiations to free the crew would move forward.

The president is spending the weekend in Maryland at the Camp David presidential retreat but is keeping close tabs on the standoff, aides said.

CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King contributed to this report.

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