KMT officials deny report on arms-bill compromise

KMT legislators yesterday denied a report that the party is considering dropping its opposition to the government's controversial arms-procurement package from the US.

Members of a KMT panel studying the arms procurement plan, including Shuai Hua-min (帥化民), Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Su Chi (蘇起), said the group has not met lately and that the party had not made a final decision on how it would deal with the package.

They were reacting to a Chinese-language newspaper report that KMT staff had drafted a paper advising Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to compromise with the DPP on the arms bill.

The KMT report suggested that the party block the purchase of Patriot missile batteries, but approve the purchase of the P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and diesel-powered submarines as part of the national defense budget beginning in 2007, the report said. If the DPP accepted the proposal, the KMT would pass the arms-procurement bill, it said.

The report said Ma took the proposal seriously. For political reasons, however, the KMT will not release the report until after the year-end local elections.

Earlier yesterday, Ma dismissed President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) criticism of the KMT's opposition to the bill, saying that the DPP was to blame for the delay.

"The Bush administration in the US agreed to the arms-procurement bill in 2001, but the DPP government did not present the bill until 2004, nine days before the legislative session ended," Ma said. "The whole process is problematic, and I think the DPP should take responsibility for the difficulties."

Ma made the remarks yesterday during a visit to Yunlin County to boost to KMT candidates' campaigns in the year-end elections.

Ma said his party has always been willing to support a "reasonable" arms-procurement bill.

He also disputed Chen's claim that KMT was ignoring national security needs.

"The issue of the arms-procurement bill is complicated, and the public has doubts on why the government should spend so much money purchasing weapons. I think we should clarify the problems first, and not oversimplify the issue," he said.

In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Chen criticized the KMT's opposition to the arms bill. Speaking on cross-strait relations, he said Taiwan should "strive for delays while not fearing talks" with China.

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