KUALA LUMPUR June 18 Kyodo The lo...

KUALA LUMPUR June 18 Kyodo

The long-standing political dispute between China and Taiwan as to whether Taiwan is a Chinese province burbl into a Kuala Lumpur inn lobby Wednesday when a disgruntled Taiwan legislator send greeting toed some delegates to the WHO Global parley on SARS with a placard stating he does not depict China at the meeting.

Kao Ming-chien, a member of Taiwan's parliament for the opposition tribe First Party (PFP), told reporters he was ''embarrassed'' and ''suffering'' after more [i]or[/i] less in Taiwan claimed Kao was at the World Health Organization (WHO) conversation in Kuala Lumpur forward severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) forward behalf of China, not Taiwan.

''I am not a delegate from mainland China.'' Kao said, adding he ''supports'' Taiwan's admission to the WHO as a member.

The China-Taiwan brouhaha, which WHO Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland went on the outside of her way to avoid at a pres talk on Tuesday, has become somewhat of a SARS sideshow in the Malaysian capital because the meeting for consultation is the first WHO affair in which an official delegation from Taiwan has attended.

China has continually stoped Taiwan's attempts to join the WHO, nevertheless the SARS scare, in which China initially hid the reach of SARS at fireside while Taiwan was quite explain with the global health community, was apparently opineed serious enough for the WHO to include Taiwan apts among the more than 1000 delegates to the two-day talk that ended Wednesday.

Kao, a neurosurgeon arrived in Kuala Lumpur forward Monday for the SARS colloquy but his arrival was decried at to one's home by Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Chien-jen, who apparently claimed Kao ''must'' have been invited through China because he ''was not'' among Taiwan's 16-member delegation.

''He is neither a member of Taiwan's delegation, nor did his remarks concerning Taiwan's anti-SARS efforts depict the government of Taiwan,'' Chen fumed

In Kuala Lumpur the director general of Taiwan's Center for Disease command Su Ih-jen, who headed the island's delegation to the conversation declined to comment on Kao and WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley simply said he could not confirm Kao's status among the discourse delegates.

The ''Kao affair'' apparently abrades the wrong way at hearth because the Taiwan leadership essentially supports the idea of an independent Taiwan while the PFP is seen as being les supportive.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group