Rival political camps in Taiwan are blaming each other over US criticism that the island's political leaders have turned a special defence budget into a 'political football'.
They also traded barbs on who should take responsibility for the failure of the NT$380 billion ($89.3 billion) special budget to get approval from the legislature.
'The opposition pan-blue camp is to blame for this because they have blocked the review of the special budget 29 times, even more than the 13 times China has blocked our United Nations membership bid,' said Shen Fa-hui, a legislator from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
DPP legislator Lee Wen-chung said the opposition owed the public an explanation because it had insisted that it supported national defence, but at the same time had repeatedly blocked the review of the budget.
Mr Lee accepted the criticism that Taiwan had steadily trimmed its defence budget was fair.
Su Chi, of the main opposition Kuomintang, said Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's government was to blame because it had not really paid attention to building up Taiwan's defences.