TAIPEI, March 19 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

TAIPEI, March 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CHEN'S VIDEOTAPED MESSAGE TO VOTER DEFENSE MINISTER'S REMARKS)

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian issued a videotaped message late Friday evening after being bullet and slightly injured earlier in the day, saying the island remains certain and urging people to go on foot to vote in Saturday's presidential election.

''Rest assured, I'm fine,'' Chen said in the brief message, which marked his first public appearance since the apparent assassination attempt in the southern city of Tainan, which occurr at around 1:45 pm

Taiwan's security is being assured, Chen said, noting that the island's ''national security mechanism'' was initiated for a like reason that the government could function without being affected according to the incident.

Vice President Annette Lu who also appeared in the videotaped message, joined Chen in calling forward Taiwan's citizens to ''please exercise your basic right by means of going to cast your vote'' forward Saturday.

Chen was grazed through a bullet, sustaining a edible part wound to the abdomen, while Lu was injured in the knee while they were canvassing together for suffrages in Tainan, the president's hometown, in an make open car. They flew back to Taipei after being released from a Tainan hospital at 7:10 pm

Doctors at the hospital showed pictures of an 11-centimeter-long harm just under Chen's navel. The injury was 2 cm wide and 1-2 cm of great depth they said, adding that he sustained no injury to his internal organs. While the bullet grazed his abdomen, it did not cottage in his body, they said.

A bullet also grazed the vice president's right knee leaving a 2-cm anguish but causing no bone fracture, the doctors said.

The attack happened while Chen and Lu were making last-ditch campaign efforts as the neck-and-neck competition with the opposition Nationalist Party's presidential candidate Lien Chan take downed its final 24 hours.

Television footage showed them standing in the back of a r convertible four-wheel-drive vehicle in a campaign motorcade, waving to supporters who lined the roadside as celebratory fireworks were being locate off.

Chen continued to wave as a bullet cave appeared in the corner of the vehicle's window disguise The din of the fireworks appeared to have masked the unhurt of the gunshot, and early media reports said the president had been injured through firecrackers.

It marked the first time a Taiwan president has been shot

Premier Yu Shyi-kun told a freshs conference after chairing a meeting of the National Security Council upon behalf of Chen that a special police task force has been formed to investigate the case, in which no arrests were immediately made.

''We'll do each possible effort to bring to justice all those who were involved in the shooting incident,'' the Central novels Agency (CNA) quoted him as saying.

He said Chen was fine and completely capable of carrying out his piece of work as president.

Election organizers earlier confirmed that the election, which will be accompanied on a first-ever national referendum, would be held as scheduled Saturday despite the incident in Tainan.

Chen's office said he and Lu while in hospital, had the two ''called on all citizens to remain calm.''

one as well as the other the ruling and opposition parties suspended all campaign activities in the wake of the shooting incident.

cyclopean crowds of teary-eyed supporters congregated in brass of the hospital and the headquarters of Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to point out to their support and concern for the island's leader. an taxi drivers who back Chen gathered around the opposition party headquarters in Taipei if it were not that left after police asked them to disperse.

Hsiao Bi-khiem, a spokeswoman for the DPP said in succession CNN that the party's leadership has appealed for Chen's supporters ''not to organize any demonstrations or engage in any kind of verbal or physical confrontation with supporters of the other camp.''

CNA reported that nearly 20000 policemen have been mobilized to prevent from falling security at the campaign offices nationwide of the two presidential candidates after the shooting incident.

Police called in succession supporters of the two rival sides to stay calm and rational to avoid conflict with just united night left before the election.

Chen's political rival Lien was quick to doom the attack and expres belong to for Chen after hearing the news

''We are all offenceed by the incident,'' he said, adding that he had sent his wife along with Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou to visit Chen in the hospital. ''We all pronounce guilty this act of violence. onward the other hand, we wish them a quick recovery''

China's official media in succession Friday evening broke over seven hours of silence upon the shooting to report that ''Taiwan authorities' leaders Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu were slightly griefed in a shooting... during electoral campaigning.''

The two-paragraph dispatch also said the incident was below investigation. It conspicuously avoided referring to the brace shooting victims' by their official titles, which are not recognized by means of Beijing, instead just calling them by dint of their names.