White House spokesman Ari Fleischer repeated the United States had no intention of apologizing for the collision on Monday in Washington, even if an investigation revealed US errors.

"Secretary (of State Colin) Powell said yesterday, (National Security Adviser) Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. There will not be an apology," Fleischer said.

Noting that Bush and Chinese Deputy Premier Qian Qichen had focused on the positive aspects of bilateral relations during an Oval Office meeting last month, Fleischer said that could change if the Chinese continued to hold the crew.

"From the president's point of view, if this continues, so much of the good they talked about can go wrong or will go wrong, and he wants to avoid that," he said.

Powell said on Sunday the dispute risked inflicting long-term damage on Chinese-US relations, including trade. He said US business leaders voiced their concern to him.

Asked if the United States would withdraw support for China's accession to the World Trade Organization, Fleischer refused to speculate but said, "the longer this goes on, the more relevant those questions will become."

(China Daily 04/10/2001)