US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday the US-Chinese relationship "is being damaged" by the dispute over the fate of 24 American military personnel held in China, who should be released immediately.

Powell said there was no evidence the United States was to blame for the incident and that the Chinese authorities needed to quickly release the Americans.

"The relationship is being damaged," Powell told the "Fox News Sunday" program. "We've got to bring this matter to a close as soon as possible ... (to) get our youngsters back and see if we can minimize the damage to our relationship."

Powell said intense negotiations were continuing despite China's demand that the United States apologize for the collision between a Navy reconnaissance plane and a Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea.

"We in intense diplomatic negotiations ... Things are moving along," Powell said, though not as fast "as I would like."

Release of the US crew members must happen soon so the relationship between the two countries is not damaged "any more than it has been damaged," he insisted.

Powell said Chinese senior foreign policy official Qian Qichen's renewed insistence on an apology from the United States was "a rebuff."

He said the Chinese vice premier knows "an apology is not what we are looking at at this time."

"We're pretty sure of our facts, we're pretty sure of what happened," Powell added. "I have seen no evidence to suggest that our plane did anything that was improper or caused this accident."

"We want to get our crew home ... The crew should be released as soon as possible. Whatever price the Chinese ultimately pay, they are making it worse," he said.

(Agencies 04/08/2001)