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KMT HEAD OUTLINES CONDITIONS FOR ARMS PACKAGE BILL'S PASSAGE

ROC Central News Agency

2006-07-11 20:39:48

    Tokyo, July 11 (CNA) Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou said in Tokyo Tuesday that his party would support a major arms procurement package if four conditions are met.

    Delivering a speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo, Ma stressed that it is "inaccurate" to believe that the KMT is against the procurement package or to blame the party for the failed passage of the major military procurement bill in the Legislative Yuan since mid-2004.

    Ma made it clear that the KMT would approve the bill if four considerations are all well heeded -- a reasonable price, cross-Taiwan Strait relations, government finances and public opinion.

    Ma said he agreed that Taiwan needs to build up adequate national defense capabilities, but pointed out that it must not rely on the United States or other countries to achieve this objective.

    The Ministry of National Defense (MND) originally proposed NT$610.8 billion in a special budget to procure eight diesel-electric submarines, six batteries of Patriot PAC III missiles and 12 P-3C anti-missile aircraft from the United States -- a price tag which many argued was too expensive, including some members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Ma claimed.

    Although the MND later agreed to allocate funding for the three items in its regular annual budget, Ma said that the acquisition of Patriot PAC III missiles was already vetoed in a public referendum held concurrently with the 2004 presidential election.

    As President Chen Shui-bian has announced that the government will increase its budget for annual military spending to 3 percent of Taiwan's gross domestic product next year, from the current level of 2.4 percent, Ma expressed his belief that "the MND will come up with a new budget plan for the procurement project in two or three months."

    Ma departed for Japan Monday for a five-day visit.

(By M. C. Yang and Flor Wang)

ENDITEM/diG