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Nevertheless this official in Hong Kong has said that it can't be ruled out that the airport might be scrapped. I'm sorry to labour this point but can you put this rumour to rest.
Well no because we haven't finished the negotiations. It was always agreed that the last lot of discussions that took place in Peking would last for a limited amount of time. At the end of that time we didn't reach agreement, we want to continue our discussions. Now I can't predict how those are going to work out. What I can say is that both sides, China and Britain, want the airport that the Hong Kong government have proposed. They need a new airport, that is what we want. Now we've got to agree the details.
oh.
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Do you have a date for fresh talks to start?
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No, a date hasn't been agreed yet.
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And are you hopeful that one will be agreed in the near future?
Well we'd like to. We can continue talking, our Ambassador is out there, Robin McLaren, the new Ambassador from China to Britain has arrived. I've already had a talk to him, which is the normal introductory talk. He has also paid his respects to the Secretary of State. Now that he's here we'll get to know him a bit better and we'll be able to continue to talk. Either in that forum, directly, at government level and at official level. There's a whole range of levels at which we keep on talking and that's important between any two countries.
Did Mr McLaren go with a message from John Major as he's reported to have done about the airport?
oh
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