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WOSHINGTON,Monday (AFP) Locked in an open-ended war on terrorism, the United States is sending a high-ranking envoy to China to improve relations with its military, which were badly damaged by last year's row over a US spy plane, according to a top defense official.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Peter Rodman will travel to Beijing in the middle of June "to talk about the principles on which we can get a military-to-military relationship on a more solid framework which will be of mutual benefit," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in remarks released Sunday by the Pentagon.

According to US defense officials, the exact date of Rodman's departure will be kept confidential for some time under new security guidelines introduced in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

But Wolfowitz made clear Washington was anxious to improve regional security cooperation with Beijing now that the events of September 11 have dramatically reshaped US strategic priorities.

"We're very interested in bringing China into the mainstream of the Pacific region," he told British-owned Phoenix Television. "We believe that China has a major, important, constructive role to play."

Contacts between the US and Chinese militaries have been severely curtailed in the aftermath of an April 1, 2001, incident in which a US EP-3 electronic surveillance plane, on a routine reconnaissance mission along China's southern border, collided with a Chinese interceptor jet over the South China Sea.

US officials would not disclose the specific items on Rodman's agenda. But they pointed out that Washington and Beijing have shared intelligence information in the wake of the terrorist attacks and have a military exchange program. 

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