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US report predicts F-16 sale delay

The government will have to wait on its request to buy 66 F-16C/D jet fighters from the US, a daily newsletter said in Washington on Friday.

The report came just days after the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a resolution that aims to put pressure on the administration of US President George W. Bush to allow Taiwan to purchase the fighter aircraft, despite US State Department efforts to obstruct the sale.

The Nelson Report, which caters to politicians in the US capital, quoted sources close to the Bush administration as saying that the purchase would not happen soon, if at all.

The sources said that the White House, not the State Department or the Department of Defense, was blocking the deal.

The report also said that Bush was holding on to control over US-Taiwan policy and was concerned that sending positive signals to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) could destabilize the "status quo."

Although the Taiwan Relations Act allows the US to sell arms to Taiwan based solely on Taiwan's defense needs, the report said that the Bush administration felt separating the issue from US-China relations was difficult.

The report quoted the sources as saying that the Taiwan Relations Act did not necessarily justify the sale of F-16s to Taiwan's military and that the administration was debating Taiwan's defense needs.
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