US apologises to China over Taiwan fuse shipment

The US president, George W Bush, has told his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao the Pentagon made a "mistake" sending Taiwan four nuclear warhead fuses in 2006.

Nose cone assemblies containing the fuses were shipped to Taiwan as helicopter batteries.

The erroneous shipment of the fuses, which can be used to trigger warheads on ballistic missiles, was only discovered last week and has since been recovered.


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George W. Bush has apologised to Hu Jintao for sending nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan in 2006. China demanded that the shipment be investigated and that the U.S. would stop sending military weapons to Taiwan.

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China Willing to Resume Human Rights Talks With U.S.

China's government said it's willing to resume a dialogue with the U.S. on improving human rights after a five-year halt, taking a step to prevent rights advocates from boycotting Beijing's Olympic Games in August.

``The Chinese side is willing to keep contact with the U.S. in all areas,'' Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said today at the end of a Beijing press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, neither elaborating nor giving her the chance to respond. ``We're ready to resume the dialogue.''

Chinese President Hu Jintao wants to prevent the world's largest sporting event from becoming a pressure point on issues from political freedom to China's role in Sudan and Myanmar. Director Steven Spielberg on Feb. 12 quit as an artistic adviser for the games' opening and closing ceremonies, citing his concern over China's failure to help end Sudan's ethnic conflict.

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China has said that it is willing to re-start communication with the US about human rights. China has not participated in this communication for five years, but is willing to do so to prevent boycott of the Olympics for political reasons.

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