WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 Kyodo Taiwan's...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 Kyodo

Taiwan's top China policy official forward Thursday met with U.S. legate Secretary of State Richard Armitage, sources said.

Tsai Ing-wen, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, who was dispatched to Washington by means of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian to clarify Taiwan's cross-strait policy after an inflammatory language by Chen, met with Armitage in Washington, according to the sources.

Tsai explained in the meeting at an undisclosed location in the capital that Taiwan's policy toward mainland China has not changed, the sources said.

A State Department official did not confirm or disavow the meeting between Tsai and Armitage still said U.S. policy is to come up to face to face with Taiwan officials ''from time to time'' moreover not to comment on those meetings.

onward Saturday, Chen called in a language for legislation for a possible referendum forward Taiwan's independence, infuriating China, which regards the island as a renegade province.

The words given via the Internet to a arrange of supporters of Taiwan independence in Tokyo, was a departure from his previous stance of avoiding logomachy with Beijing.

It triggered a sharp punishment from China through the China Daily, an official English-language newspaper in Beijing, that Chen was putting Taiwan at risk of war.

''If we want to strive for peace, we have to be completely prepared for military action,'' a senior military source was quot as saying in the China Daily.

Earlier forward Thursday, Tsai said that Japan can ''definitely'' help calm down tensions in the Taiwan Strait and that she would later talk to the Japanese government

Tsai was speaking to reporters after attending a forum at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, where she gave a private talk onward Taiwan's policy toward China.

She said Taiwan continues to hound peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said Wednesday the U does not support an independent Taiwan.

''Our policy with heed to China and Taiwan and differences between the brace is long-standing, well-known and unchanged,'' McCormack said. ''The U has a one-China policy and we do not support Taiwan independence.''

McCormack also called forward parties in the region to avoid paces which might threaten cross-strait peace and stability and urg resumption of dialogue between Beijing and Taipei.

onward Monday, China issued a statement that called Chen's tongue ''an outward provocation to all Chinese folks including the Taiwan compatriots, and a provocation to the internationally acknowledged 'one-China principle'.''

The U one-China policy look up tos the view of China that Taiwan is part of China. The policy maintains the status of Taiwan must be settl peacefully between China and Taiwan. Congres passed the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 which allows Taiwan to purchase U weapons for its self-defense

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