Taiwan leaders request US transit stop

Taipei, Jan 5: Taiwan has asked the US government to allow a delegation of leaders, possibly headed by President Chen Shui-bian, to make a transit stop en route to Central America, a plan that could enrage China.

China, which has claimed Taiwan as its own since their split in 1949 when Communists defeated the Nationalists in a civil war, discourages diplomatic contacts with the island that might be seen as even tacit recognition of its government.

It is particularly opposed to visits by Taiwan leaders to the United States, a Chinese diplomatic ally but also a friend of Taiwan.

A US government source said Taiwan ''raised the possibility'' of a stopover in the United States en route to Nicaragua.

The delegation would be travelling to Nicaragua, one of Taiwan's few diplomatic allies, for the inauguration of President-elect Daniel Ortega.

The United States has not made a final decision on the request but will consider it according to what is ''convenient'' and ''comfortable'' for the travellers, said the source, who asked not to be named.

Taiwan has not decided who to send to Nicaragua or where they would want to stop, Foreign Ministry spokesman David Wang said. He said the application to the United States was protective, in case someone wanted to land there.

''We will send a delegation, that's for sure,'' Wang said.

''The question is who will lead the delegation.'' Chen landed for several hours in the US territory of Guam in September 2006 during a South Pacific tour. But last May he passed up a US offer to let him land in Alaska, apparently because the US government would not let him stop in a major city.

REUTERS

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