LONDON, Jan 19: China has said its intelligence officers found more than 20 spying devices in a Boeing 767 meant to become President Jiang Zemin’s official plane after it arrived from the United States.

Reports appearing in the Financial Times and The Washington Post said the listening bugs were discovered last autumn before the aircraft’s planned maiden voyage.

The Post quoted Chinese officials as charging US intelligence agencies with planting the devices while it was being refitted in the United States. A Chinese official told the FT it was unclear China would use the incident against the United States because of improving relations.

To date, 27 listening devices had been found in the plane, including one in the headboard of the presidential bed, the Post reported.

The FT said the bugs were tiny, satellite-operated devices that Chinese officials detected after the plane emitted a strange static whine during test flights in China in September, shortly after it was delivered.

The discovery came ahead of a planned summit between US President George W. Bush and Jiang in Beijing next month. Jiang was said to be furious about the find, the FT said.

The White House and CIA declined to comment on the report, citing policies against discussing such matters.

“We never discuss these kinds of allegations,” said White House spokesman Taylor Gross.

The aircraft was made at the Boeing factory in Seattle and then fitted with VIP equipment and upholstery by another company. The plane was under surveillance by Chinese officials throughout, the newspaper said.

An official from the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday he could not confirm if the report was true and no one was available for comment from the civil aviation authority administration.

Boeing had no comment on the report, but spokeswoman Debbie Heathers said a plane that was delivered to Delta Air Lines in June 2000 was resold to China United Airlines — the air force-run airline that ordered the aircraft — and customized for executive use by Jiang by a modification company in Texas.

A source close to the transaction said the maintenance on the aircraft between the time it left Delta Air Lines and the time it was sold to China United Airlines was carried out by Dee Howard Aircraft Maintenance in San Antonio.

The FT quoted Chinese officials as saying the security forces had launched an investigation into possible negligence within China United Airlines and state-owned China Aviation Supplies Export and Import Corp, which was responsible for importing the plane.—Reuters