LINYUAN, TAIWAN, Aug 27, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Taiwan plans a live-fire test of U.S.-made Patriot missile weaponry amid calls for the establishment of a nationwide low-altitude missile shield to counter any threat from China's missile program.

"The three Patriot batteries now serving the army have been verified by the United States...after they passed mock tests," said Major-General Wang Chao-tai, the commander of a Tienkung missile base in the southern county of Kaohsiung. "We're working to prepare for a live-five test."

But mindful of the tensions with rival China following President Lee Teng-hui's controversial statehood claim, Wang said a "live-fire test would be conducted only after U.S. approval."

Defying Beijing's anger, Washington sold three PAC-II batteries to Taiwan in 1993. The three units have been put into service to defend the populous greater Taipei area.

Wang would not say if Taiwan plans to buy more Patriot batteries, saying it would be up to defense budget and political considerations.

Local media have said Taiwan has plans to procure up to six batteries of PAC-III, the improved version of PAC-II, to protect built-up areas in central and southern Taiwan.

Wang made the remarks in the first ever opening of the Tienkung missile base to the media, a move the state-funded Central News Agency said would help boost the public confidence when Beijing repeatedly said it would not renounce the option of force against the Nationalist island.

"Our major task is to safeguard the southern area," Wang said.

The base sits atop a hill overlooking the greater Kaohsiung area, which houses the island's leading steel and shipbuilding plants and the prime naval base.

The underground missile cells, each housing four homemade Tienkung ground-to-air missiles, is protected by a concrete wall measuring one meter in width.

"It is able to resist earthquakes and attacks by bombs and chemical weapons," a proud Major-General Ma Ying-chu said.

But Wang said the weaponry was not designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, although he did say it proved to be effective sometimes in intercepting missiles.

Tienkung II missile, brainchild of the Chungshan Institute of Science of Technology, has a range of 200 kilometers (124 miles), twice that of the Tienkung I.

The People's Liberation Army lobbed ballistic missiles into the shipping lanes off Taiwan in mid-1996 to intimidate the island's first direct presidential elections.

Defense Minister Tang Fei said last week Taipei planned to build a low-altitude missile shield.

He said the defense system would come under a "national missile defense" project, which he said had been mistaken as being part of the American-led Theatre Missile Defense (TMD).

"Many said we want to join the TMD. No, we're not going to join it," Tang said in an interview with state television. "We want to set up our own."

Tang added the system would target China's ballistic and other missiles and any attacks launched by the mainland's military aircraft.

Establishing such a shield could take 10 years and cost Taiwan up to $300 billion Taiwan dollars ($9.38 billion), he said.

The United States and Japan agreed last week to start research on a multi-billion dollar missile umbrella.

China has been expressing opposition to the project for several months. The shield would take in Japan, and China suspects it will also include Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province.

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