Mar 27, 2008, 9:44 GMT
Taipei - Taiwan's defence minister said on Thursday the military had never examined and analyzed four fuses for detonating nuclear warheads sent to the island from the United States by mistake.
'As far as I know, there was nothing like that at all,' said Defence Minister Tsai Ming-hsien during a parliament meeting in Taipei.
He was asked by Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, parliamentarian Lin Yu-fang whether the military had dismantled and analyzed the fuses, given that they had been sent to Taiwan 18 months before the error was discovered.
Lin said the wrong shipment by the United States was like a 'gift from heaven' as it would help upgrade Taiwan's weapons development technology if the military had analyzed the items. Taiwan has been known to have developed its own missiles with the help of US technology.
In response, Tsai said sometimes it would be best to reject such a gift.
His comment came after Pentagon officials said they were investigating what had caused the mistake and whether the items had been tampered with.
The Pentagon announced the blunder on Tuesday, saying instead of sending helicopter batteries to Taiwan, it shipped four such fuses to the island in August 2006. It said it had recovered the four fuses last week.
The incident drew concern from China, a rival of Taiwan since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry Wednesday expressed 'strong dissatisfaction' about the delivery and demanded to be promptly informed of the findings of an investigation by US officials about the blunder.
Beijing has considered Taiwan an integral part of China that must be brought back to the Chinese fold, if necessary by force. It has repeatedly asked Washington - which does not have official ties with the island, but has remained as its biggest arms supplier - not to provide arms for Taiwan.
On Wednesday, US President George W Bush reassured his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, by telephoning him, saying the shipment of the fuses was just a mistake.
Your Talkback on this Story