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China's Chen Guangcheng 'unable to meet US officials'

Updated Thursday, May 3rd 2012 at 00:00 GMT +3

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng says he has been unable to meet US officials to discuss his desire to leave the country.

The blind activist, in hospital in Beijing, told the BBC he believed Chinese officials were preventing US envoys from visiting him on Thursday.

After he escaped house arrest last week, Mr Chen spent six days in the US embassy before emerging on Wednesday.

The issue continues to overshadow key talks between the US and China.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Beijing to attend talks focusing on North Korea and Syria.

As the talks opened, Mrs Clinton did not mention Mr Chen by name but addressed the topic of human rights.
'Threats to family'

Over the past two days there have been a number of reports, sometimes contradictory, about exactly why Mr Chen left the embassy and what information he had been given.

The US ambassador to China, Gary Locke, on Thursday rejected the suggestion that Mr Chen had been pressured into leaving.

"I can tell you unequivocally that he was never pressured to leave. He was excited and eager about leaving," he said.

However, US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland acknowledged to reporters that "they as a family have had a change of heart about whether they want to stay in China".

She added: "We need to consult with them further, get a better sense of what they want to do, and together consider their options."

The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington says that, beyond this, the US is being fairly tight-lipped about what its officials are now doing.

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