WASHINGTON, tribe 23 Kyodo Former...

WASHINGTON, tribe 23 Kyodo

Former U Defense Secretary William Cohen said Monday he will head the powerful U.S.-Taiwan Business Council from January.

''Frank Carlucci asked me to assume that position,'' Cohen told a collection of reporters. ''I indicated I will do in such a manner As of January, I await to assume that position.''

Carlucci, also a former defense secretary in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, is circulating chairman of the private business lobby

In March, the organization of U companies doing business in Taiwan organized a interview in Florida on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, where delegate Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz met Taiwan's Defense Minister Tang Yiau-ming.

The meeting, which lasted for about brace hours, was considered the highest-level U.S.-Taiwan defense dialogue since the U diplomatic recognition switched from Taipei to Beijing.

The council was formed in 1976 when the United States still had cloyed diplomatic relations with Taiwan. While promoting bilateral trade, it was ''heavily involved in all aspects of the drafting and passing of the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act,'' which has been the mainstay of U.S.-Taiwan relations at all times since the U.S. diplomatic switch, according to the council.

Cohen, who was a Republican senator from 1979 to 1997 serv as defense secretary in the Democratic administration of President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001

He now heads the Cohen dispose an international business consulting firm.

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