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ARMS PURCHASE BILL LIKELY TO BE SCREENED IN MARCH: LEGISLATIVE HEAD

ROC Central News Agency

2006-01-25 19:57:58

    Washington, Jan. 25 (CNA) A major arms procurement bill that would allow the Taiwan government to purchase three items of defensive weapons from the United States is expected to be reviewed by the Legislative Yuan in March, visiting Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said here Tuesday.

    Wang made the comment while giving a speech prior to a dinner with U.S. academics and political figures at the ROC representative office in Washington, D.C. Wang also met Senate Taiwan Caucus co-chairmen George Allen and Tim Johnson earlier the same day.

    It is possible that lawmakers will start to discuss and deliberate the bill in March after the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) puts forward its own version of the arms procurement package.

    No matter the results produced by the negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties in the next session that is slated to begin Feb. 21, the disputed arms procurement issue might have a chance to be settled, even if only partially, according to Wang.

    According to the Legislative Yuan speaker, opposition People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong asked him to preside over negotiations on the issue during the next legislative session and said that the PFP will attend the negotiations.

    As long as a conclusion is reached through a democratic process at the Legislative Yuan, whatever result produced will be respected by all parties concerned, he claimed.

    A major arms purchase bill submitted by the Ministry of National Defense has been boycotted at the Legislative Yuan since mid-2004 by KMT and PFP lawmakers who question the country's need to buy what they claim are obsolete items -- eight diesel-electric submarines, six Patriot PAC III anti-missile batteries and 12 P-3C anti-submarine airplanes -- at unreasonably high prices.

    Wang is currently visiting Washington before heading to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, where he will attend the Jan. 27 inauguration of President-elect Manuel Zelaya on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian.

(By Oliver Lin and Flor Wang)

ENDITEM/J