A senior Washington official will head to Beijing this month in an attempt to get day-to-day Sino-US links back to the level they were at before Nato bombed China's Embassy in Belgrade, diplomatic sources said yesterday.
The visit by Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering will be his first trip to China since June, when Beijing rejected his explanations that human error led to the bombing in May.
Mr Pickering is expected to seek to put any lingering resentment over the bombing and continued trade difficulties firmly to one side in an effort to rebuild other areas of the relationship, such as political, military and human rights dialogue.
'This visit is crucial in getting all the practical sides of the relationship firmly back on track,' said a senior United States source.
'The diplomacy has been carried out, now the time has come to seek meaningful action. If it goes well, we hope to really start moving things forward again.
'There has been a feeling that too many sides of the relationship have been left idle for too long.' A trip to the US by a senior Chinese military official, even a ship visit, could be the first signs of a successful meeting, US officials said.
Chinese officials believed Mr Pickering's visit could have a big impact on routine links severed as relations soured over the bombing and subsequent violent protests outside the US Embassy in Beijing.