US President George W Bush told Chinese President Hu Jintao that the shipment of fuses for detonating nuclear warheads to Taiwan was a mistake, White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Wednesday. ( dpa )
The subject came up briefly when Bush telephoned Hu to raise concerns about the Chinese crackdown on protests in Tibet, Hadley said.
"Basically, the president indicated that a mistake had been made. There was very little discussion about it," Hadley said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry expressed "strong dissatisfaction" about the delivery and demanded to be promptly informed of the findings of an investigation by US officials about the blunder.
The US military quickly recovered the four fuses after learning last week from Taipei that parts had been accidently shipped to Taiwan in place of an order for helicopter batteries.
The Pentagon announced the mistake on Tuesday and has launched an investigation into the fall 2006 shipment.