BEIJING: Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng said on Monday he expects Beijing to let him and his family travel to the United States without fresh troubles, but remains unsure how long it will take for official approval to come through.

Chen, 40, who took shelter in the US embassy for six days after escaping house arrest, said he was still in hospital undergoing checks, which had identified an intestinal problem as enteritis, or chronic inflammation from an apparent infection.

“I can't move around much but I'm feeling better,” he said in a telephone call, sounding more relaxed than last week when he was at the centre of a diplomatic crisis between the two superpowers just as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing.

After leaving the embassy on Wednesday under a deal that foresaw him staying in China, Chen changed his mind and said he wanted to spend time in the United States to recuperate from the years of imprisonment and harassment that made him one of his country's most recognised representatives of the “rights defence” movement campaigning for expanded civic freedoms.

China's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Chen could apply to study abroad, prompting an offer of a fellowship from New York University, though it remained unclear if China would cooperate in the dissident's travel arrangements.

Chen said on Monday that Chinese authorities had no reason to try to block him and his wife and two children from going to the United States.

“I still don't know when I'll leave, but it shouldn't be too long,” he said.

“The government openly promised to respect my rights as a citizen, and I expect them to live up to that promise,” he added. “If they did try to frustrate my plans, then they'd be slapping their own face, and I don't think they will do that.”

Any more ructions with Beijing over Chen's future could embolden US critics of President Barack Obama's China policies as the United States gears up for presidential elections in November. They had seized on Chen's pleas for safety and his assertions, later retracted, that US diplomats had left him isolated after escorting him from the embassy to the hospital.