"I want them to keep their commitment by allowing me to travel abroad to recuperate," he said. "I want to go to the United States and rest for a while, since I haven't had a Sunday in seven years."

The Chinese comments came as U.S. diplomats spoke with Chen in the hospital. The officials also met with Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, according to a senior State Department official who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Clinton was due to leave China on Saturday for Bangladesh. It remains unclear whether a fresh deal over Chen's future will take shape before she departs.

Chen said he was worried about his relatives in his hometown in the eastern province of Shandong, which he fled last month. He said he has not been able to contact some of them and blamed local Chinese officials for his living situation there.

"They have installed seven surveillance cameras in my house," he said. "In addition to have the guards stay in my place, they are building an electric fence around my house. They even scoffed, 'Let's see what this blind guy can do to us.' "

In a telephone interview with CNN, Chen expressed optimism that U.S. officials would act on his behalf.

"I believe they will help me," he said.

Until last month, Chen had been forcibly confined to his home for 18 months after serving four years in prison, apparently over his legal advocacy for what he called victims of abusive practices such as forced abortions and sterilizations by China's family planning officials.

When Chen left the embassy, U.S. officials announced that they had worked out a deal with China for his future and that Chen was leaving of his own free will.

The officials said the Chinese government had committed to relocate Chen to a "safe environment" away from the province where he and his family say they had suffered brutal treatment by local authorities. In addition, the officials said, China agreed to investigate those allegations of mistreatment and promised Chen would face no further legal issues.

Under the agreement, Chen was to be granted the opportunity to pursue university studies in the safe location. Locke said one of the proposals "allowed for the possible transfer some day to an American college or university."

But Chen subsequently indicated he regretted having abandoned the embassy and made pleas through CNN and other international news organizations to U.S. leaders to get him out of China.

His statements prompted bewildered reactions from U.S. officials, who reiterated that the decision to leave the embassy was Chen's and that he had repeatedly said he wished to remain in China.

On Friday, Chen mollified his tone compared with the comments he made a day earlier, when he said he was "very disappointed" in the U.S. government because he felt American officials had lobbied for him to leave the embassy and abandoned him at the hospital.

Instead, he expressed "deep gratitude" to American officials in Beijing for having treated him "extremely well" during his six-day stay in the embassy.

Jerome Cohen, an American law professor and friend of Chen, offered an explanation for Chen's statements after he left the embassy.

"Everything changed when he got to the hospital," said Cohen, who advised Chen by phone while he was inside the embassy. "All of a sudden, the people who had worked so hard to secure his future from our embassy and our State Department, they were tired as can be and they went home to sleep."

Chen is "in a very fragile emotional state," Cohen said. "You have to understand the enormous pressures in which he's been living and recently operating. And it got to be too much."

Chen's case has touched a nerve in China. Comments from Chinese officials reported by state media have criticized what they call "interference" by Washington.

Cohen said he is hopeful a deal can be reached to get Chen out of China.