Government officials accompanying the delegation include Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新), Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), Commissioner of the Council for Agricultural Affairs Fan Cheng-tsung (范振宗) and Department of Health Director-General Li Ming-liang (李明亮).
Taiwan has eight diplomatic allies in Africa. In August 2000, three months after his inauguration, President Chen visited five allied countries in Latin America and Gambia, Burkina Faso and Chad in Africa. Chen made a second visit to Latin America last year, making a stopover in New York.
Details of the president's itinerary will be published next week. Officials said that the secrecy surrounding the now-scrapped stopovers had been meant to keep China from using diplomatic pressure to hinder the visits.
No comments on whether China was behind the cancellation of the stopovers were made yesterday.
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