Taiwan asks Vatican to make China back off

TAIPEI, Jan 10 (Reuters) Taiwan, which counts the Vatican as the most valuable of its few diplomatic allies, has asked the Pope to try to stop China bullying the island, over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

President Chen Shui-bian made the request in a letter posted on the presidential office Web site, following Pope Benedict's New Year message in which he called for peace and respect for human rights.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan, which has formal diplomatic relations with only two dozen countries, part of its territory and has threatened to attack if the island moves towards formal independence.

''As Your Holiness indicates, 'Those with greater political, technical, or economic power may not use that power to violate the rights of others who are less fortunate','' Chen's letter said, refering to China.

''Taiwan has long been suppressed by a more powerful neighbour and is still refused entry to the United Nations.

''... Please also urge China to dismantle the missiles it has aimed at Taiwan and to renounce the use of force, thus giving peace and stability in Taiwan, and the Asia-Pacific region, a chance,'' the letter said.

Taiwan worries the Vatican may eventually switch allegiance from Taipei to Beijing.

Beijing has had no diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1951, two years after the Communists took power. It only allows Catholics to worship at state-backed churches that recognise the Pope as a spiritual figurehead, not an effective leader of the Chinese church.

The Vatican, keen to improve ties with China, estimates that about 8 million Chinese Catholics worship in the ''underground churches'' not recognised by the Chinese government, compared with some 5 million who belong to the state-controlled church.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island.

Hong Kong's Cardinal Joseph Zen, the top Roman Catholic official on Chinese soil, is to travel to the Vatican this month for a meeting to map out the Holy See's China strategy, a Hong Kong newspaper said yesterday.

REUTERS AKJ KP1105