Taiwan commissions two US destroyers

SUAO, Taiwan, Nov 2: Taiwan commissioned two ageing US-made destroyers today, the last major arms acquisition aimed at countering China's perceived growing threat since bureaucracy and partisan politics suspended new buys.

The Kidd-class warships join two already in service with the Taiwan navy. The four vessels bought from the United States cost a total 700 million dollar.

The commissioning comes as the United States, the island's main arms supplier, increases pressure on parliament, in which the opposition has a slim majority, to pass a scaled down budget to buy more US weapons.

The budget has been bogged down in parliament for two years by opposition lawmakers who say the package, which would include eight diesel submarines, is too expensive and provocative.

President Chen Shui-bian Chen, speaking at the commissioning ceremony, thanked US President George W Bush for approving the arms sale in 2001 and highlighted the need for Taiwan to bolster its defences in light of a growing military build-up in China.

''I must again urge the leaders of the opposition,'' Chen said at the ceremony, where all four destroyers were lined up at harbour. ''You have the ability and the responsibility to cement the nation's strength.'' Chen's independence-leaning government has long sought approval of the arms funding, originally set at 18 billion dollar but now cut down to only around 190 million dollar as most of the rest is wrapped into the regular defence budget.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing has vowed to bring the self-governed democracy of 23 million people back under mainland rule, by force if necessary.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognising ''one China'', but is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to defend the island.

The top US representative to Taiwan, Stephen Young, last week urged parliament to pass the budget by the end of the current parliament session in the strongest statement to date on the matter.

China last month took delivery of its fourth Russian-made Sovremenny-class destroyer, which is armed with anti-ship missiles, and has also bought six Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines to serve in its submarine fleet of 80 vessels.

China, which is also believed to be interested in developing an aircraft carrier, has more than 800 missiles deployed across the strait from Taiwan and is believed to be adding more at a rate of 100 per year.

The 9,574-ton, 23-year-old Kidd class destroyers were originally built for, but never delivered to, Iran after the 1979 overthrow of the late Shah. They were instead acquired by the US Navy, which decommissioned them in the late 1990s and put them in mothballs.

REUTERS