WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Warren Christopher is preparing a recommendation for President Clinton on whether he should host a summit with his Chinese counterpart this fall, U.S. officials said Thursday. Clinton will receive Christopher's advice, which is likely to be forwarded in written form, after two sets of key consultations -- in Washington beginning Thursday between Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minster Li Zhaoxing and in New York Wednesday when the secretary of state meets with Foreign Minister Qian Qichen. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Christopher has so far reached no conclusions on the wisdom of a presidential summit and will assess the possibilities for such a parley "one day at a time" over the next week.

"At some point he will make a recommendation to the president," Burns told United Press International. "We haven't arrived at that point yet." Senior aides to Christopher and Clinton point to improvements in relations with China, which hit a low point over the summer after Taiwanese President Lee Teng-Hui was issued a U.S. visa to attend a college reunion at Cornell University, since the secretary of state met with Qian in Brunei during August. Nevertheless, they say China continues to abuse its citizens, refuses to join a worldwide treaty on missile sales and fails to heed American advice that nuclear cooperation with Iran is irresponsible and dangerous.

"We've turned a corner in the relationship and we're surmounting the problems over the summer of the Taiwan visa issue," Burns said. "We're looking forward to two days of good meetings." Chinese officials, still seething over the Taiwanese president's June visit to New York state, see it differently. They want a fourth communique in which the issue of Taiwan-U.S. relations is clarified and Washington pledges never to issue visas to Taipei's leaders, Clinton administration officials said. The first three communiques, hammered out in the late 1970s and early 1980s, lay out ground rules for relations between the three nations. It states basically that there is only one China, of which Taiwan is a part, and the communist government in Beijing is its sole representative.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian said in Beijing Thursday that "diplomatic consultations are under way" on the issue in Washington between Tarnoff and Li. China is looking to the United States to take some unspecified step that will forever clear up the Taiwan question, he said. "The two countries face a special issue before the meeting of their senior leaders," said Chen, who also praised the United Nations for deciding not to discuss Taiwan during meetings surrounding the world body's 50th anniversary next month.

"The one who tied the knot should untie it." The Clinton administration is willing to consider a fourth communique or some type of less formal diplomatic agreement, U.S. officials said, but flatly refuses to ban Taiwan's leaders from its shores. Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province that will one day return to mainland control, is not the sole factor in reaching a decision on the summit, they said. Tarnoff will not present Li with a "check list" of demands during their meetings this week on which the Chinese must act before Clinton agrees to a summit, they said. Rather, the Clinton administration is looking for general progress on some of the main issues. Washington wants Beijing to formally join the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international treaty that bans the sale of bomb- capable rockets to nations that pose a proliferation risk. China, which U.S. officials accuse of vending M-11 missile components to Pakistan and Iran in violation of the MTCR, has agreed to terminate those sales.

But it has so far refused to sign the treaty, which calls for a far more stringent standard on missile sales. China's agreement to reconvene a panel on the issue, chaired by Undersecretary of State Lynn Davis, would represent "positive movement" on the MTCR issue, they said. China had suspended all high-level consultations with the United States in protest of the visa decision. Resuming the dialogue on human rights with Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck, discussions which have not occurred since January, would be another "good sign," they said. Washington has criticized China's coercive birth control practices, its use of cheap prison labor for manufacturing, its repression of democratic activities and its abuse of Tibetans.

The Clinton administration would also like China to "clarify exactly what type of nuclear cooperation" it is considering with Iran, activity U.S. officials say is far too risky given the radical regime's support of international terrorism and drive to acquire nuclear weapons. Washington must "assess where we are" with the Chinese on those issues before Christopher makes "a general judgment call on whether there's been enough progress to warrant a summit," a senior U.S. official said under conditions of anonymity. Both leaders will be at the United Nations' 50th anniversary celebration during the last week of October, and U.S. officials said Clinton may decide to limit his contacts with the Chinese president to a bilateral meeting in New York. A summit, if it should take place, will likely be in Washington the following week, they said.