Shortly arriving in Belize from an overnight transit stop in Los Angeles, Ma attended a banquet hosted in his honor by over 100 Taiwan residents in the small Central American nation on the site of a handicrafts market. Afterwards, Ma, first lady Christine Chow and other Taiwan government officials were greeted by a lion dance.

Taiwan Ambassador to Belize Stephen Shih Ting expressed his hope that Ma's visit will open "a new era" in mutual cooperation and development."

For his part, President Ma stated that the crowd greeting him at the airport left him very moved and quipped that their enthusiasm was "as hot as the climate."

The president said Taiwan's relations with Belize had "begun with the land" through agricultural assistance, medical and health improvement programs, social welfare and now extended into computer use training and stated that this cooperation would take a further step yesterday with the signing of a bilateral tele-communications assistance pact.

Noting that Belize has a parliamentary system and vibrant party politics, Ma said "the commit-ment of Belize to democratic politics is no less firm than the ROC and we share identity with the concepts of democracy and freedom."

The president then launched into defense of his foreign policies of "living diplomacy" and "diplomatic truce" with the authoritarian People's Republic of China.

Ma related that his government had "under the framework of the ROC Constitution, promoted a policy of 'no independence, no unification and no use of military force" that aimed to "take Taiwan as the focus and benefit the people."

The president said his government's policies had both improved cross-strait relations and let the Taiwan people see "the light of peace" after 60 years of political deadlock across the Taiwan Strait.

'Don't worry'

Ma stated that the improvement had allowed Taipei to consolidate links with its remaining 23 official diplomatic partners.

While noting that Taipei and Beijing had not held discussions directly on his notion of a "diplomatic truce" in a decades-long mutual cut-throat battle for diplomatic allies, Ma stated that Beijing "had shown goodwill."

Ma related that on April 28 he had announced receipt from the World Health Organization an invitation for Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan to attend the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva earlier this month under the name of "Chinese Taipei."

Ma said Taiwan's participation in an United Nations activity for the first time in 38 years was "of great significance" and stated the event showed "improvement in cross-strait relations does not conflict with but complements the expansion of our international space."

Ma expressed approval for the visit by Democratic Progressive Party Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu to Beijing and Shanghai to promote the upcoming World Games and a similar decision by DPP Tainan City Mayor Hsu Tien-tsai to visit the PRC.

"Evidently, a desire for healthy cross-strait relations and interaction is not a monopoly of the KMT," Ma stated. "Our hearts are in the same place as we love Taiwan and hope Taiwan can survive and develop and step out into the world."

Ma vowed that his government "will not sell out Taiwan but will uphold Taiwan sovereignty" and told Taiwan compatriots in Belize, "please, don't worry."