Taiwan's Chen blasts WHO for membership rejection

TAIPEI, Apr 30 (Reuters) Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian lashed out for the first time at the World Health Organisation for rejecting the island's latest membership bid because it is not a sovereign country, his office said today.

Taiwan has applied every year for 10 years to join the WHO as an observer and has been rejected every time. This year, for the first time, Taiwan applied to join as a full member.

In a Sunday address to a Taiwan think-tank, Chen expressed ''solemn opposition and regret'' over the WHO secretarial office's refusal on Friday to schedule a vote on whether Taiwan could join the 193-member body.

''The president emphasised that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent nation -- Taiwan has the authority join the WHO as a member state,'' the president's office said in a statement.

''That's the collective human rights of 23 million Taiwan citizens and not something the WHO secretary can totally deny or revoke.'' Because archrival China sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory rather than as a country, and has more WHO allies than Taiwan does, the island has been banned since 1972.

China and Taiwan split after a civil war in 1949, with icy political ties persisting ever since.

REUTERS AGL PM0935