Taipei - Taiwan upheld its claim to the disputed Spratly Islands Friday, a day after Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi inspected Layang Layang, one of the islets of the South China Sea archipelago.

"Historically, geographically and factually, the Spratly Islands and surrounding waters have long been the traditional territory of the Republic of China without doubt," said Taiwan's Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Taipei - Taiwan's prosecutors on Friday indicted two men they accused of spying for China and sought three-year jail sentence against each of them.

Wang Ren-bing, 55, a senior specialist at the Presidential Office, and Chen Pin-jen, 48, a former parliamentary aide, were charged with leaking national secrets and passing classified information to China.

Taipei - Taiwan's top billiard player Wu Chia-ching could obtain Singapore citizenship to play there after his salary demands were not met in his home country, a sports official confirmed on Thursday.

"We really regret this, but the pay he requested is too high and we cannot meet his demand," Tu Yung-hui, executive director of the Chinese-Taipei Billiard Association, said by phone.

Wu has not received Singapore's citizenship yet, but flew there Singapore Wednesday after talks with Taiwan sports authorities on pay rise collapsed.

Wu's father said Chia-ching is in Singapore for holiday.

Taipei - Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves hit a record high of 294.2 billion US dollars in February on interest and other gains, the Central Bank reported Thursday.

Taipei - Taiwan's year-on-year inflation rate dipped to a six-year low of 1.31 per cent in February, a senior official of the government's statistics agency said Thursday.

"Reduced demands amid the global downturn forced down prices, especially those on transports, clothing and food," said Wu Chao-ming, a spokesman of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.

Taipei - Taiwan's former president Chen Shui-bian on Wednesday denied accepting bribes in a land deal and embezzling state funds during a pretrial hearing in Taipei.

A fiery Chen, apparently angered by the court's rejection of his plea for release the night before, lashed out at prosecutors for using what he claimed was "questionable testimony" from a witness who had accused him of corruption.