Agence France-Presse,
Taipei: A top Taiwan air force officer said Monday that the United States may clear the island's bid to buy 66 F-16 fighters after the island's new president takes office, a move that could irk China.
Taiwan had applied to the US government to buy the F-16 C/D fighters in early 2007, but observers said Washington held up the deal because it didn't approve of Taipei's efforts to hold a vote on applying for UN membership.
“Signs show that the US may sell the F-16 C/Ds after May. We're very optimistic,” Air force Lieutenant General Liu Chen-wu said in response to a lawmaker's question in parliament.
Voters rejected the UN referendum, proposed by Taiwan's outgoing pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, in late March. The United States had deemed the vote “provocative” to Taiwan's rival China, which claims the self-governing island as part of Chinese territory awaiting reunification.
President-elect Ma Ying-jeou, of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT), has said he hopes to improve flagging ties with Washington. Ma takes office on May 22.
If the F-16s deal, worth at least 100 billion Taiwan dollars (3.3 billion US), is approved, it would be the biggest arms deal that Washington has offered Taiwan since 2001.
The new planes aim to reinforce the air force's combat capability before it can acquire so-called “third generation” fighters from the United States, a defence ministry official said.
The United States agreed in 1992 to sell Taiwan 150 less sophisticated fighters but refused to provide the F-16C/Ds, which have a longer range and powerful ground attack capability.
Taiwan and China split in 1949.
