Officials say Beijing has indicated it will push through activist's application to leave China after offer of study from US university
The US expects the Chinese government to quickly clear the way for Chen Guangcheng to travel abroad to study, it said on Friday, raising hopes for the blind activist after days of fraught negotiation.
China's foreign ministry hinted at a possible face-saving deal in an ambiguous statement saying he could apply to study abroad like other citizens.
Human rights campaigners gave a cautious welcome to the news but warned that the outcome was far from certain.
"Mr Chen has been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he can be accompanied by his wife and two children," US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Friday.
"The Chinese government has indicated that it will accept Mr Chen's applications for appropriate travel documents. The United States government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these documents, and make accommodations for his current medical condition," she added.
"The United States government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention."
The statement came shortly after Hillary Clinton, in Beijing for strategic and economic talks, said: "Over the course of the day progress has been made to help him have the future that he wants and we will be staying in touch with him as this process moves forward. This is not just about well-known activists; it's about the human rights and aspirations of more than a billion people here in China and billions more around the world."
She also said that US embassy officials and doctors – who had been blocked from seeing Chen – met him on Friday.said that They said Chen had three broken bones from his escape, and his foot was in a cast.
Chen had agreed to remain in China to study with government assurances on his safety, but changed his mind after leaving the US embassy in Beijing, where he had fled after escaping from 19 months of house arrest in eastern Shandong province.
"Chen Guangcheng is currently being treated in hospital," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement released by Xinhua and carried prominently on news portals on Friday.
"If he wants to study abroad, he can apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen."
Phelim Kine, of Human Rights Watch, said: "The lesson of the last 48 hours is that expectations really need to be backed with concrete plans for delivery.
"It's encouraging that the US government has confidence that the Chinese government will respond appropriately in this regard, but there's no guarantee. What's required now is public confirmation by the Chinese government and the issuance of a schedule for how and when this process will be completed."
Chinese rights lawyer Tang Jitian earlier told AP: "This notice from the ministry is positive news, but how it will play out we don't know. For instance, getting the approval for the paperwork to go, there are many potential pitfalls. We can't be 100% optimistic."
A state department official said Chinese officials were interviewing Chen to record his allegations against local Shandong officials, Blake Hounshell of Foreign Policy tweeted. The official also said Clinton had been directly involved in negotiations, holding extensive meetings with senior Chinese officials.
Earlier, Orville Schell, director of the centre on US-China relations at Asia Society, said in terms of the initial deal, "one striking thing for me was how far the Chinese side was willing to go to actually co-operate with US state department officials to resolve this issue, ie bringing Chen Guangcheng's family to Beijing, agreeing on universities for him to attend, agreeing not to harass him [and so on]."
He added: "If this reasonably good working relationship under stressful circumstances proves in the end to have been true, it will be a good omen for the future of 'the relationship'."
Chen, a self-taught legal activist, was originally praised by authorities for helping disabled people defend their rights, but angered officials by defending women who had undergone forced abortions and sterilisations, which are illegal in China.
In a surprise telephone call to a US congressional hearing on Thursday night Chen had repeated his request to go to the US with his family and requested a meeting with Clinton.
He said he did not want to seek asylum but to rest and study. He also expressed fears for the lives of his other family members, including his mother and brothers, and voiced concern that people in his home village – which remains heavily guarded – were suffering retribution for helping him.
He Peirong, the Nanjing activist missing for days after helping to drive him from Shandong to Beijing, tweeted to say she had returned home safely but declined to comment further to media.
The Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said the wife of Jiang Tianyong, a lawyer snatched outside the hospital where Chen was being treated on Thursday, said he had been released but had suffered hearing loss in both ears after being badly beaten.
Several Chinese newspapers launched a co-ordinated assault on Chen and the US on Friday morning, with commentaries describing Chen as a pawn and attacking the US ambassador.
"Chen Guangcheng has become a tool and a pawn for American politicians to blacken China," the Beijing Daily said.
But the official news agency Xinhua and the Communist party paper People's Daily did not carry such pieces, suggesting to some that there might be disagreements among Chinese officials about how to handle the case.