THE Americans had a hand in the consensus reached between Taiwan's ruling and opposition parties last week.

The most salient feature of the 10-point consensus, signed by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian and People First Party (PFP) chairman James Soong, obliged the former to renounce de jure independence publicly during his term, which ends in 2008.

Mr Soong admitted openly that the United States played an important role in bringing about the consensus.

Asked by journalists about this, he said: ""Do you think President Chen will talk to me without the Americans?'' At a
separate press conference, he disclosed that during his month-long stay in the US in December, ""very highly placed US officials told me that the cross-strait situation was far more serious than the Taiwanese authorities assumed''.

He did not say who the officials were, but Taiwanese media reported that he had met the undersecretaries of the state and
defence departments.

His US trip had also coincided with the visit of Mr Chen Yunlin, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, prompting the Taiwanese media to speculate that he might have met Beijing's representatives secretly.

Mr Soong said the US officials warned that ""the cross-strait situation was very delicate'' and that they were very concerned
about Beijing's anti-secession law, which is expected to be passed this month, and Taipei's constitutional amendments next month.

They told him unequivocally that the US would not fight for Taiwan if it declared independence.

""Without American help, can Taiwan fight a war with China? Don't try to kid yourself,'' Mr Soong quoted an American official as saying.

He said the officials even used foul language when referring to President Chen.

Mr Soong then asked for the US bottom line. ""Peaceful unification, no war, preserve Taiwan to pin down China,'' he quoted
the US official as saying.

With that information, Mr Soong told President Chen that the US could not afford to lose Japan. But in order to preserve Japan, the US must preserve Taiwan first.

If Taiwan were to be annexed by the mainland, then Japan could not be preserved. Hence, the best outcome would be to maintain the present status quo.

Mr Soong was still in the US when news broke that he and President Chen might hold their first meeting in four years.

It is clear from the PFP chief's remarks that Washington was behind the Chen-Soong meeting last Thursday.

An official from Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang (KMT), went so far as to say that the meeting was in fact
masterminded by the US because it served American interests in three ways.

First, it helped put a brake on runaway separatism in Taiwan, thereby averting an imminent cross-strait crisis.

The US certainly would not like to confront China at a time when it was still entangled in the Middle East and when the North Korean nuclear crisis was worsening.

The consensus helped to remove the immediate risk of war in the Taiwan Strait.

The US can now say that the onus of maintaining peace and stability in the area rests with China.

Second, the meeting served as a stern warning to Mr Chen.

By elevating Mr Soong's political status, the US was sending a veiled warning to the President that should he remain wayward, as he had done before by ignoring American warnings, Washington could replace him with a ""spare tyre''.

""History has seen the US toppling regimes that were not compliant enough and replacing them with their political opponents,'' the KMT official told The Straits Times.

Third, in exchange for raising Mr Soong's political profile, the PFP might relax its opposition to Washington's massive arms sales to Taiwan.

Following last Thursday's meeting, Taiwan's Defence Minister Lee Jye said he would meet Mr Soong to get his support for the arms deal.

The KMT, which was totally excluded from the consensus-building talks, was extremely bitter.

A KMT official said the PFP chief was nothing more than a US proxy.

""The Chen-Soong consensus should be more appropriately termed the Chen and US-proxy consensus,'' said the official.