But before that could happen, both sides would have to make substantial progress, the official said.
"It is a long way from concrete progress," the official said.
"Some countries should not be allowed to exhibit a manner that would block progress," the official said, when asked whether a lingering feud between Ankara and small but vocal EU member Cyprus was hampering a deal.
That meeting, lasting more than three hours, produced no convincing progress, the officials said, as was the case with two other meetings with the Taliban foreign minister, Abdul Salam Muttawakil, and the governor of Kandahar, Mullah Mohammed Hassan.
Fortunately, he was back to his bitchy best by September, when he drafted an update for the Palace on the progress of the official inquiry into the scandal.
"Before we had arrested it, which means to that point, they weren't making that forward progress," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"It does show progress," said the official, who briefed reporters under ground rules imposed by the Pentagon that precluded identifying him by name.
Tuesday's Xinhua report, a summary of progress in the official inquiry into the riots, quoted the head of Urumqi's Public Security Bureau, Cehn Zhuangwei, as saying that 718 "criminals who disturbed the peace" had been detained.
As the week progresses, the officials said, Mr. Bush will meet at the White House with a variety of religious leaders and heads of not-for-profit charities.
"There are widespread investigations in progress," the local official added.
For Mr. Hu to hand the reins of the military to Mr. Xi "accords with Hu's and other leaders' interest in institutional progress," the former official said.
