US silence on Jiang's 'bugged' plane

President Jiang Zemin is reported to be furious

American officials are refusing to comment on press reports that a Boeing 767 made in the US for Chinese leader Jiang Zemin contained more than 20 spying devices.

The reports in Britain's Financial Times newspaper and the Washington Post quoted Chinese security sources as saying that the tiny, satellite-controlled bugs were discovered when they emitted static during test flights in China last year.

We never discuss these kinds of allegations

White House spokesman Taylor Gross

One was found in a lavatory and another in the headboard of the presidential bed.

President Jiang is reported to be furious at the reported discovery. Neither the White House nor the State Department would comment on Saturday's report.

Reports from Washington, quoting sources close to the Bush administration, suggested that there had been no official Chinese protest about the issue.

BBC Washington correspondent Michael Buchanan says the incident is unlikely to cause long-term damage in US-Chinese relations, which have improved markedly since last April.

An important summit between Mr Jiang and President George W Bush is scheduled to take place in less than a month's time.

Arrests

According to the FT, the plane was built at the Boeing factory in Seattle, then fitted out with VIP features by other companies in Texas.

The construction was under 24-hour Chinese surveillance throughout, with Chinese troops posted at the hangar, and the paper says that Beijing has now launched an investigation into how the work was handled.

The modifications were carried out under Chinese surveillance

The investigation is probing two bodies involved - the air force-run China United Airlines and the state-owned China Aviation Supplies Export and Import Corporation (CASC).

Twenty Chinese air force officers are already being questioned on suspicion of negligence and corruption, and two CASC officials are in custody.

According to the Washington Post, the airliner is now sitting with its insides torn out at an air base north of Beijing.

A Chinese source said 27 bugs had been discovered on the plane since its delivery in August and it has never been used officially.

One of the Texas companies which fitted out the plane has denied any tampering with the plane.

"I know that we had no culpability whatsoever in this - all we did was put an interior in it," said Jerry Gore, president of Gore Design in San Antonio.

Awkward timing

The forthcoming summit is scheduled to take place 30 years to the day after Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong held an historic meeting to break the Cold War ice between them.

But relations between the two powers were strained only last year by another incident involving spying equipment.

A US EP-3 spy plane was forced to land in Chinese territory in April after colliding with a Chinese fighter.

China, which described the plane's flight along the Chinese coast as a "provocation", eventually released the crew and the plane - but only after thoroughly inspecting the sensitive equipment on board.

The incident appeared to confirm signals from the Bush administration in Washington that it now regarded China as a major strategic rival.

Relations did however appear to improve last month when China was finally admitted to the World Trade Organisation.

Beijing noticeably toned down its rhetoric during that month's parliamentary election in Taiwan - a disputed territory which China regards as its own and which is a key US ally.