Taipei - A Taiwan court on Tuesday ordered the detention of a Singaporean man on suspicion of plotting to embezzle 30 million US dollars of government funds.

The Taipei District Court ordered negotiator Wu Shih-tsai detained after questioning him over his role in a 2006 diplomatic scandal in which Taiwan was trying to get the Pacific island state of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to recognize Taiwan in exchange for 30 million US dollars in aid.

To negotiate the deal, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry asked Wu and Taiwanese citizen Ching Chi-ju owing to their purported good ties with PNG politicians.

Wu insisted he has not received a penny from Taiwan, but prosecutors named him as Ching's accomplice and ordered him detained incommunicado Tuesday night.

The Taiwanese Taiwan's Foreign Ministry was to send 30 million US dollars designated as aid to PNG to a joint account opened by Ching and Wu in the OCBC bank in Singapore.

In December 2006, as the talks were making no progress, Taipei decided to halt the talks and get the money back, but Ching vanished before the money could be recovered, while Wu was brought back to Taipei to face prosecution.

According to the Interpol, Ching who also has US citizenship is now in the United States. (dpa)