Chinese President Jiang Zemin said on Thursday in Chile that China and the United States should place the highest priority on bilateral relations in resolving their spy plane dispute.

"I want to emphasize that Chinese and US leaders should manage this situation with maximum interest in bilateral relations in order to find an adequate solution," the Chinese leader said on his arrival in Chile at the start of a 12-day tour of Latin America.

Asked by reporters when China would let go the crew of the US plane, now stranded on Hainan Island, Jiang replied: "After the incident I addressed my country... I made my position clear. The airplane is in the airport in the province of Hainan and the 24 crew members are safe and sound."

The US plane made an emergency landing after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea.

Washington has demanded the immediate release of the plane and its crew, but China has insisted on an apology.

"I have visited a lot of countries and seen that it is normal for people to ask forgiveness or say `excuse me' when they collide in the street," Jiang said, speaking through an interpreter.

"But the American planes come to the border of our country and do not ask forgiveness. Is this behavior acceptable?"

US President George W. Bush on Thursday for the first time publicly expressed his regret at the loss of the Chinese pilot, who is missing and feared dead after he bailed out of his F-8 fighter. But Bush did not apologize.

Jiang lamented the pilot's fate. "On my way to Chile I was thinking about our pilot, whose destination is still unknown, and also the plane at the bottom of the sea," he said.

(China Daily 04/06/2001)