Taiwan's Premier Faces Corruption Case

The president of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian, today came under intense pressure to resign after prosecutors said they had enough evidence to indict him on corruption charges.

Chang Wen-cheng, of the Taiwan high prosecutor's office, told reporters that while the president would not be indicted now, there was a strong possibility he would be after he leaves office. Under Taiwanese law, a sitting president cannot be indicted other than on charges of sedition.

But prosecutors indicted Mr Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, and three former presidential aides after an investigation into the handling of a secret diplomatic fund used to sustain Taiwanese diplomatic efforts abroad.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, the vice president Annette Lu had was called back to the capital Taipei, from a trip to the outlying island of Penghu.

Ms Lu, a strong supporter of Taiwanese independence, would replace Mr Chen were he to leave office before the end of his term in May 2008. Because of her position on independence, she is widely disliked by China which has called her "scum of the nation".

The prosecutor's office said the high court would charge the first lady with corruption and faking documents in a case involving the misuse of more than Taiwanese $14.8m (£236,700).

Investigations against the president and his wife, and an unrelated investigation of their son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, have dragged the president's popularity to new lows.

The opposition leader, Ma Ying-jeou, of the Nationalist party called on the president to resign without delay.

"He has lost the people's trust and respect, and as he is burdened with scandals, he can no longer lead the people nor effectively represent the country," Mr Ma said. "We urge him to resign as soon as possible."

Lawmakers from Mr Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive party have so far stuck with the embattled president, who has survived two opposition attempts to put the issue of his recall to Taiwanese voters, and brushed aside weeks of street protests that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people.

The investigation into the presidential fund began in July, after the ministry of audit said irregularities were found in the accounts of the presidential office.

Earlier, opposition lawmakers had begun to look into the fund after a Taiwanese businesswoman living in Australia accused a close friend of Ms Wu of acquiring invoices from her company, purportedly for her personal use.

The fund is secret because of the sensitivity of Taiwanese attempts to maintain its overseas footholds in the face of moves by China to undermine its position.