Taiwanese leader spurns offer to refuel in Alaska in favour of American rival
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian risked further irritating Washington yesterday by making a surprise stop in Libya on his way home from an eight-day Latin American trip already marked by his defiance of the Bush administration.
Mr Chen's plane is scheduled to arrive in Taipei at about noon today, when thousands of supporters are expected to greet him.
But lawmakers and analysts said the overnight detour to Libya would almost certainly incense Washington, widening the spat between Taiwan and the US, which is the island's biggest informal ally.
According to the government-funded Central News Agency, Mr Chen made use of his four-hour stop in Tripoli - which recognises Beijing - to discuss various co-operation programmes, including exchanging representative offices.
It was Mr Chen's first visit to the oil-rich North African country, which has been a rival of the US for two decades.
The Central News Agency quoted Taiwanese Foreign Minister James Huang Chih-fang as saying in Tripoli that: 'In January this year, Saif Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, came to Taiwan for [a] visit and invited President Chen to Libya. So the president decided to pay a visit on his way back from Latin America.'