AFP, TAIPEI: Taiwan's cabinet on Wednesday approved an extra military budget of 610.1 billion Taiwan dollars (18.24 billion US) for the purchase of advanced weaponry amid tensions with rival China.
The cabinet approved the draft bill aimed at overriding the restrictions of existing laws governing official budgets, government spokesman Chen Chi-mai told reporters.
The bill calls for the procurement of eight diesel engine-powered submarines, the modified version of Patriot anti-missile systems PAC-III, and a fleet of anti-submarine aircraft over a 15-year period beginning in 2005.
A breakdown of the extra military budget was 144.9 billion Taiwan dollars for PAC-IIIs, 412.1 billion for conventional submarines, and 53 billion for anti-submarine aircraft.
US President George W. Bush offered the sales in April 2001 as part of the most comprehensive arms package to the island since 1992.
Taiwan's approval of the special military budget came one day after the United States warned China over its arsenal of weaponry targeting Taiwan, including approximately 500 short-range ballistic missiles.
The US Defence Department warned in a report two days earlier China was developing “credible military options” to prevent Taiwan from achieving independence, including tools to discourage the United States from coming to the island's aid in a conflict with the mainland.
If equipped with adequate guidance systems, these missiles could destroy key Taiwanese leadership facilities, military bases and infrastructure with minimal advance warning, Pentagon analysts point out.
Some of these weapons are believed to be capable of hitting US military bases in Okinawa, Japan.
Taiwan has deployed three batteries of PAC-II missiles to defend its densely populated greater Taipei area.
The United States acknowledges Beijing's position that Taiwan is part of China and does not have official relations with the island.
However, Washington is bound by law to provide weapons to help Taiwan defend itself if its security is threatened and calls for peaceful settlement of the sovereignty dispute between Taipei and Beijing.
China, which split with Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war, has repeated threatened to take the island by force should it declare formal independence.
