Wang denies report on splitting from KMT

The China Times, citing unidentified sources from the KMT leadership, said Wang had told the party that he was unlikely to serve as former KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's running mate.

Instead he demanded the party promise him three things -- that he would keep his speakership, that he could suggest the running mate for Ma, and that he would be consulted on the selection of premier if the KMT won the presidential race, the paper said.

"This (report) is purely nonsense," said Wang, a KMT stalwart who is apparently losing to Ma the battle for the party's presidential nomination. "It never occurred to me that way... How could I have proposed that?"

KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung and Secretary-General Wu Den-yih also denied the report as unfounded.

"Wang never mentioned anything like that," said the chairman. "I hope the media will stop making up stories and then putting the blame on the party leadership. The KMT does not like spreading rumors."

The KMT secretary general said that the rumors "are not helpful to intra-party cooperation."

Ma's campaign office denied that any of its members was a source of the China Times report.

The office also demanded the media stop citing unnamed sources in their reports to strain the ties between Ma and Wang and to undermine KMT unity.

The office said Ma's moves have been based on a March 7 consensus he reached with Wang that whichever of them won the presidential primary, the winner would invite the other to serve as the running mate.

Wang has since then announced that he will not take part in the primary, raising fears that he may mount an independent presidential bid eroding the KMT's support.

Some observers said Ma, who has a good chance of winning the presidency, seems to be refusing to cut a hand-binding deal with Wang.

Ma would want to have people from his own camp fill important offices in the KMT, the Cabinet, and the Legislature, giving him complete control and sparing him the need to make compromises, the observers said.