Chinese sharing intelligence on terrorism, U.S. official says.

Byline: Jim Landers

WASHINGTON _ Chinese counter-terrorism experts met with their U.S. counterparts in a daylong session at the State Department earlier this week and expect to meet again to share more information, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

China has assured the Bush administration of its help in the fight against Osama bin Laden and is sharing intelligence on terrorism in Central Asia, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

China immediately condemned the Sept. 11 attacks, and President Jiang Zemin offered to help combat terrorism in a phone call the next day with President Bush.

China's unusual _ though not unprecedented _ sharing of intelligence with the United States represents an example of how the Sept. 11 attacks have turned the diplomatic world upside down. The first foreign policy crisis of Bush's administration came when a Chinese jet collided with a U.S. intelligence-gathering plane off China's coast. The plane and its U.S. Navy crew were returned only after a tense standoff between Washington and Beijing.

Afghanistan brings the two countries back to a history of shared intelligence, however. In the 1980s, the CIA and the Chinese were partners, along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, in building an anti-Soviet guerrilla army of Islamic warriors.

Some U.S. analysts say China's intelligence on bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network could be valuable. Muslim guerrillas operating in China's far-western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have trained at bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan, and a few have participated in al-Qaida operations elsewhere.