WASHINGTON, Sept 8: President Bill Clintons landmark China trade bill cleared key hurdles in the US Senate yesterday, putting it on track for expected final passage next week after months of delay, says Reuters.

In a victory for the White House and pro-trade business groups, the Senate voted 92-5 to move forward with the legislation, which would grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China and give US companies unprecedented access to the fastgrowing Chinese marketplace, potentially the world's largest with 1.3 billion consumers.

The Senate then went on to reject three proposed amendments that threatened to scuttle the trade bill.

Once approved by the Senate and signed into law by Clinton, the bill would end the annual ritual of reviewing Beijing's trade status and guarantee Chinese goods Hie same low-tariff access to the US market as products from nearly every other nation.

The amendments, by Democrats Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, called on China to increase religious freedom, use enrironmen-tally-frlendly fuels and for Washington to continue to review trade relations with Beijing.

"Shame, shame on the Senate. Are we slaves or are we men?" Byrd lamented before his clean fuels amendment was defeated 65-31.

Undeterred by the lopsided votes, North Carolina Republican Sen Jesse Helms and other critic of communist China threatened to offer 13 more amendments, Including measures on human rights and Taiwan's security that may garner broader support.

If any amendments are adopted, the trade bill would be sent back to a bitterly divided House of Representatives, which approved the controversial measure in May but is unlikely to do so again so close to the November election, lawmakers said.

But Clinton's allies in the trade fight were Increasingly optimistic they would be able to defeat ail of the proposed amendments, ensuring final passage of the trade bill in a Senate vote expected by Sept 15.

The most difficult of those amendments may be the one proposed by Republican Sen Fred Thompson of Tennessee and backed by Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi that would authorise sanctions agalnsC China for alleged weapons sales to Pakistan and other states.