Taiwan's foreign ministry early Sunday severed diplomatic relations with Chad after it decided to switch recognition to China.

The move came only hours before Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang's scheduled departure to attend the inauguration of Idriss Deby for a third term as president. The trip has been cancelled.

Speaking of the timing, foreign ministry spokesman Michel Lu said: "Obviously, it was intended to humiliate (Taiwan)."

Foreign Minister James Huang apologized for failing to stop rival China's latest diplomatic offensive.

"We've done our best but it's regrettable we have failed to fulfil the mission of securing diplomatic ties with Chad ... I apologize to the people," Huang said.

Lu had earlier told a midnight press conference: "Knuckling under China's huge pressure, Chad has decided to restore diplomatic ties with Beijing.

"To safeguard national dignity and sovereignty, the Republic of China, Taiwan, government decided to cut off diplomatic ties with Chad and immediately suspended all of the aid projects to the country."

Taiwan's chief China policymaker Joseph Wu said China was behind the plot.

"The Chinese government must take sole and full responsibility for any impact it may have on cross-strait ties," he added,

Wu, head of the cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, did not say how Taipei may retaliate against Beijing's fresh diplomatic onslaught.

The Liberty Times said the government of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party plans to apply for United Nations membership in the name of "Taiwan" for the first time, a move sure to anger Beijing who would see it as another step towards formal independence.

Taiwan was replaced by China in the world body in 1971. Its annual attempts since 1993 to gain a UN seat under the name Republic of China -- Taiwan's official title -- have failed because of objections from Beijing, which regards the island as part of its territory.

Taiwan has governed itself since it split from China in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Wu also urged Taiwanese to "stop harbouring any illusion towards Beijing" in an allusion to the opposition's repeated calls for better relations.

Premier Su last week rejected a proposed landmark visit by a senior Chinese government official, citing what he called Beijing's hostility to the island.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office had said office director Chen Yunlin was expected to attend an agricultural cooperation forum to be hosted by Taiwan's leading opposition Kuomintang party in mid-October.

Chen would have been the highest Chinese government official ever to visit the island.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his Chadian counterpart Ahmad Allam-mi signed a joint communique in Beijing Sunday night to resume diplomatic ties, China's state news agency Xinhua reported.

Despite the diplomatic setback, Chang Jung-kung, a spokesman for the leading opposition Kuomintang, called for rapprochement with Beijing "to avoid a vicious cycle" in the political wrangle between Taiwan and the mainland.

Chad is the seventh country to switch recognition to China since President Chen Shui-bian took office in May 2000, following Senegal, Liberia, Macedonia, Dominica, Vanuatu and Grenada.

The island is now recognized by just 24 countries, mostly small states in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.

Taipei and Beijing accuse each other of chequebook diplomacy, trying to lure away each other's diplomatic allies with major offers of aid.

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