U.S. formally notifies Taiwan of arms deal; package more maritime-oriented

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Pentagon officials gave Taiwan the formal approval to buy submarines, destroyers, and submarine warfare aircraft as part of a major arms package, U.S. officials said.          The list of items approved by President George W Bush went well beyond the weapons systems disclosed by the White House, Pentagon officials said, acknowledging that the administration is keeping the details secret in the face of China's negative response.          Rear Admiral Craig Quigley declined to put a dollar figure on the arms package.          "It's a robust package, heavily oriented toward maritime capabilities," he said.          Questions also remained about where the U.S. will get eight diesel-electric submarines, which was included in the list, officials said.          The U.S. neither owns nor builds diesel-electrr license U.S. shipbuilders or sell them directly to Taiwan, a Pentagon spokesman said.          "We are reasonably sure that if the Taiwanese wish to come through us to obtain submarines...we will find a way to make that work," said Quigley, adding that it will require "much homework."          He cited Germany, the Netherlands and Italy as possible sources of diesel electric submarines. But he said there had been no advance contacts with their governments "because it's premature to do so at this point."          In Berlin, however, a government spokesman said Germany is not interested in selling submarines to Taiwan.          White House officials said the U.S. is also prepared to sell Taiwan four Kidd class destroyers and 12 P-3 Orion submarine hunting patrol planes to beef up its naval defenses as well as self-propelled artillery.          Bush also left open the possibility of future sales to Taiwan of destroyers equipped with Aegis air defense system if the threat posed by China continues to grow, they said.          The sales also will open the door to an infusion of U.S. training for the Taiwanese military, Pentagon officials noted.          A Pentagon delegation led by Fred Smith, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian affairs, briefed a Taiwanese delegation on the package at a three-hour meeting at Fort McNair, an army base in the capital that houses the Pentagon's National Dd by General Huoh Shou-yeh, vice chief of the General Staff, will now go back and decide what they wish to buy from the U.S.-approved list. 

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