U.S. diplomats are scheduled to visit the Chinese activist at the center of an international crisis Friday after he told U.S. lawmakers that he wants to leave China for the United States.

The visit to see Chen Guangcheng in the Beijing hospital where he is staying was disclosed by a U.S. official. It is part of the deal worked out between the United States and China under which Chen left the U.S. embassy in Beijing, where he had taken refuge for six days after escaping from house arrest.

Since leaving the embassy for the hospital on Wednesday, Chen has made several pleas to be allowed to leave China, adding confusion and complication to the diplomatic firestorm over his future.

"China pledged to guarantee my constitutional rights and called me a free man," Chen said, speaking from his hospital room in the early hours of Friday in Beijing to congressional commission members who listened by speakerphone in Washington, 12 times zones and thousands of miles away.

"I want them to keep their commitment by allowing me to travel abroad to recuperate," Chen 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 40-year-old blind, self-taught lawyer added that he wants to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "to thank her in person."

But he 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 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.' "

He asked that Congress help him ensure his relatives' legal rights are respected. "This is what concerns me greatly right now," he said.

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.

Last month, the activist escaped house arrest in Shandong and made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, but left it Wednesday for medical treatment in a Beijing hospital, where he was reunited with his wife and two children.

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

U.S. officials said the Chinese government had committed to relocate him 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. U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke told CNN that one of the proposals "allowed for the possible transfer some day to an American college or university."

But on Thursday, Chen said he regretted having abandoned the embassy.

From the hospital, Chen said he had spoken by phone on Thursday with U.S. representatives who had also met with his wife, Yuan Weijing.

Chen disputed the suggestion that he had a change of heart about staying in China after he left the U.S. Embassy.

Chen said Friday that he wanted to focus on getting treatment for his foot and for other unspecified ailments.

He mollified his tone from what it had been Thursday, when he said he was "very disappointed" in the U.S. government because American officials who had been lobbying for him to leave the embassy and who promised to have people stay with him at the hospital but who failed to appear after he checked in.

Chen said embassy officials told him later Thursday that Chinese security officials had prevented them from entering his hospital room.

Chen expressed "deep gratitude" to American officials in Beijing for having treated him "extremely well" during his six-day stay in the U.S. Embassy.

On Thursday, Chen had said he and his family were "in danger. If you can talk to Hillary, I hope she can help my whole family leave China."

Clinton arrived Wednesday in Beijing for economic talks.

Chen's comments left the U.S. government battling to defend the deal it brokered with the Chinese authorities over Chen, with human rights advocacy groups questioning whether China would uphold its side of the bargain.

U.S. officials in Beijing said Thursday they would continue to help Chen where possible, but that the decision to leave the embassy had been his own.