Taiwan fails in 10th bid for WHO observer status (updated 12:35 a.m.)

The World Health Assembly rejected Taiwan's 10th bid for observer status at the U.N. health agency on Monday, backing the position of China.

The 192-nation assembly accepted by consensus the recommendation of the assembly's General Committee that it refuse to take Taiwan's bid to a vote.

The Pacific nation of Palau said Taiwan should be included to improve global response to disease, but the Chinese delegation, which maintains that Taiwan is a province of China, told the assembly that observer status must be reserved for sovereign nations.

"The essence of this issue is not health, but politics," said Gao Qiang, China's health minister. "The motive has remained the same. Namely to split China."

Taiwan has applied for observer status at the World Health Organization as a "health entity" instead of a country, claiming a closer link with the U.N. agency would help it battle outbreaks, such as the SARS epidemic of two years ago or a possible human influenza pandemic sparked by a mutation in the current strain of bird flu.

Taiwanese officials say it is unfair to keep the island's 23 million people out of WHO's global disease prevention network.

"We will continue to fight until justice is done for the people of Taiwan," Health Minister Hou Sheng-mou said outside the meeting room.

"Our rights should not be ignored," Vice Foreign Minister Michael Kau said.

Palau had said it would promote Taiwan's cause again next year if the proposal was rejected. Palau, however, did not formally object to the recommendation that the issue not be put to a vote this year.

"Diseases don't wait until political conditions are right to cross borders," said Caleb Otto, who headed the delegation from Palau. "We experienced it in a tragic way with SARS a few years ago."

Taiwan broke off from mainland China amid civil war in 1949. The Chinese seat at the United Nations, held initially by Taiwan, was handed to Beijing in 1972 under the so called "one-China policy."

Taiwan was admitted to the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a "separate customs territory." For the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, it is an "economic entity."

For five consecutive years before 2002, Taiwan tried applying to WHO under its official name, the Republic of China, before trying as a "health entity." Two years ago, the assembly voted 133-25 after four hours of debate on whether to grant the island observer status at the U.N. health body.

China has always said it will battle Taiwanese efforts to link up with U.N. bodies, because of its long-standing view that the self-ruling island is part of China and should be represented by Beijing.

"A small number of countries are tabling the proposal with the pretext of caring for the health of the people in Taiwan," Qiang said. "We oppose making use of health issues to seek Taiwan independence."