TAIPEI, Feb 2: Taiwan Presi-dent Chen Shui-bian made a landmark visit to the disputed Spratly Islands on Saturday to assert a territorial claim in a move likely to upset China, Vietnam and other nations.

The visit was to assert Taiwan’s sovereignty, a card that the ruling party had been using to try and woo voters before the presidential elections on March 22.

During the March election, a referendum will also be held to ask voters whether Taiwan should join the United Nations under the name “Taiwan”.

Mr Chen, dogged by criticism that he accomplished too little as his eight-year term winds down, flew in a military aircraft to Taiping Island in the Spratlys, to visit a recently completed airstrip for maritime rescue work, military sources said.

“Taiping island has been a territory of Taiwan since Dec 12, 1946,” Chen said at an opening ceremony for the airport.

“Taiwan, as a country with a role concerning the Spratly Islands, calls on neighbouring nations to resolve the dispute with peaceful means.”

Analysts said Chen was making the visit for several reasons.

“He wants to tell the Taiwan people that he’s still in control. It is also a strong signal to assert Taiwan’s sovereignty ahead of the UN referendum,” said Andrew Yang, a political analyst at the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies.

The 1,150-metre airstrip, completed late last month, will supplement Taiwan coastguard and military facilities on Taiping, which is the biggest in the Spratly chain at 489,500 square metres and 1,000 km south of Taiwan.

“He’s going to show he’s the president, for face, that’s the most obvious,” said Su Chi, a defence specialist with the Nationalist Party (KMT) before the visit. “Whether this will lead to more conflict isn’t certain.”

The Spratly Islands, a string of rocky outcrops in the South China Sea possibly holding large oil and gas deposits, are also claimed by neighbouring Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Last year, the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung established a green turtle reserve on Taiping in a bid to stop hunting.

Vietnam has protested to Taiwan twice in the last two months as airstrip construction progressed.—Reuters