The Pentagon was expected to notify the U.S. Congress of its intention to sell the arms to Taiwan by the end of its current session last Friday. Taiwan has expressed worries that if the U.S. missed the deadline, the Legislative Yuan would have to start the process of approving a budget for the arms package from the start.

However, an unnamed presidential official noted in a Central News Agency report that the session of Congress had been extended to deal with the current financial crisis, and therefore the arms deal could still be approved.

The package includes Patriot missiles, Apache helicopters, diesel-powered submarines, anti-tank missiles, submarine-launched missiles and P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft, but not new F-16 fighter jets Taiwan was hoping to buy.

The U.S. State Department notified the Taiwanese media late on Friday that government departments were still reviewing the deal, and that once it was approved, Congress would be immediately notified.

Kuomintang lawmaker Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said Washington had the duty to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons under the Taiwan Relations Act. The U.S. would not want to see the Taiwan Strait turn into a Chinese lake, he said, expressing optimism that Washington would soon approve the deal.

Lin suggested that U.S. preoccupation with its current financial crisis and its intention to gain support from China may have contributed to the slow advance of the Taiwan deal.

There have been doubts that the Bush administration wanted to leave a decision on the arms sale up to the next U.S. President. Critics of Taiwan's government have also blamed the delay on U.S. doubts about President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) plans to improve relations with rival China. The arms deal was stalled for years at the Legislative Yuan when Ma's Kuomintang refused to discuss it because of its apparently high cost.