"Strengthen national defense!" "Safeguard Taiwan!" the crowd chanted. Most were supporters of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and its ally the Taiwan Solidarity Union.

"Taiwan people must awaken. If we don't defend ourself, how can we ask other people to defend us?" Chin Mei-ling, an independence advocate and adviser to President Chen Shui-bian, told reporters.

The crowd marched past an area near parliament where hundreds of opponents of the arms deal had gathered. The two groups shouted and gestured at each other, but no clashes were reported as they were separated by barbed wire and riot police.

The organizers said around 50,000 people took part in the pro-arms sale march while witnesses estimated 15,000.

Chen separately criticised two opposition parties for their efforts to block the arms procurement first proposed by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), the state-funded Central News Agency reported Sunday.

"Am I wrong to carry on the arms deal planned by the KMT?" Chen said in the Dominican Republic during a tour of the region. "The opposition's bids to block the bill in parliament's agenda committee is unthinkable because it leaves the bill with no chance of a public debate in parliament," he said.

Chen accused the opposition of going soft against China and ignoring its growing military threat. "Why does the opposition boycott the bill only to flatter Beijing?"

Chen ended the KMT's 51-year grip on power after he won the 2000 presidential election. He was re-elected last year.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war but Beijing still claims the island and threatens to invade if it declares formal independence.

China has deployed up to 730 ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan.

Opposition parliamentarians this month blocked the package even though the total cost has been scaled back from the original 19 billion dollars.

The opposition insists the arms bill is illegal after Taiwanese voted against expanded arms purchase in the island's first referendum held simultaneously with presidential polls in March 2004.

The latest version of the arms bill calls for the purchase of eight conventional submarines and 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft from the United States over a 15-year period for around 340 billion Taiwan dollars (10 billion US).

The six PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile systems included in the original bill would be financed by the government's yearly budgets.

Some opposition lawmakers said Taiwan could not afford the arms deal while others said the equipment would be delivered too slowly to enable the island to catch up with China's military build-up.

related report
Taiwan to boost submarine force with Harpoon anti-ship missiles: Jane's Taipei, Sept 25 (AFP) - Taiwan plans to equip its two Dutch-built submarines with Harpoon anti-ship missiles that could be used to attack key Chinese naval bases, Jane's Defence Weekly said.

If all goes smoothly, the two Sea Dragon diesel electric submarines would be armed with UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, the defence weekly said in an article to be published Wednesday.

It said the US navy had awarded McDonnell Douglas Corp, a Boeing subsidiary, a contract to coordinate and execute an on-site survey of the submarines for this purpose.

Submarine-launched Harpoons are pre-loaded into a capsule and launched from a torpedo tube. The capsule rises to the surface and launches the missile.

"If Taiwan procures the Block 2 Harpoons with coastal target suppression, Taiwan's submarines will have the capability of attacking coastal, in-harbour and land targets," Jane's said.

"This will place China's key naval bases of Shantou, Xiamen, Sandu, Xiazhen, Shanghai and Zhoushan in Taiwan's crosshairs," it said

The Harpoon missile deal, following Russia's sale of Kh-41 anti-ship missiles to China, was part of a 2001 US arms package.

Taiwan's military-run Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology had been working unsuccessfully on a submarine-launched version of its Hsiung Feng anti-ship missile, the journal said.

Taiwan already has air and ship-launched Harpoons.

China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence, prompting Taiwan to seek more advanced weaponry to defend itself.

The United States has been the leading arms supplier to Taiwan despite Washington's switching of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Relations between China and Taiwan, which split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, have worsened since independence-leaning Chen Shui-bian was elected president in 2000. He was re-elected last year.

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