A U.S. technical team is traveling to China today to inspect the spy at the centre of the recent tension in diplomatic relations between the two countries, but potential trouble loomed over the issue of payment.
U.S. Ambassador Mr Joseph Prueher confirmed a flight carrying the team was on its way via Hawaii.
Washington immediately welcomed China's decision to allow access to the plane,immobilised on the tarmac of a military air base on Hainan Island with its nose cone ripped off, propeller blades mangled and fuselage pierced by metal shards since a collision with a Chinese fighter jet on April 1.
U.S. Vice-President Mr Dick Cheney called it an encouraging sign amid strains over the mid-air collision, President George W. Bush's blunt statement of defence support for Taiwan and the biggest U.S. weapons offer to Taiwan in a decade.
China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported that the United States had agreed to consider unspecified payments over the EP-3E spy plane. Xinhua did not characterise the payments as compensation, which would imply that Washington accepted responsibility for the mid-air collision.
Mr Cheney emphatically ruled out compensation, saying the United States would reimburse only costs associated with recovery of the plane.
"We made no commitments on the payments," Mr Prueher told reporters on his last working day as ambassador. "We are very pleased that we were able to get the initial step towards getting the airplane back."
There was some speculation in the United States that China might use the issue of compensation as a bargaining chip in its demands for an end to U.S. spy flights off its coast.