The US president, George W Bush, has written in sympathy to the widow of the Chinese fighter pilot, Wang Wei, killed in the collision with a US spyplane, as vice-president Dick Cheney re-iterated the message that the US had nothing to apologise to China for.

Republican hardliners are accusing the president of being too soft on the Chinese and members of Congress have warned that they will block China's efforts to host the next Olympic games, veto its membership of the World Trade Organisation and will move to cut trade links between the US and China.