After more than 90 speeches on Wednesday - the vast majority against putting Taiwan on the assembly's agenda - President Jean Ping of Gabon asked the assembly's General Committee if there were any objections to not including the issue. When none were voiced, he banged his gavel and the request was rejected without a vote.

China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya told the General Committee that Taiwan's effort not only runs counter to the 1971 resolution and the UN Charter, but "also constitutes a brazen challenge to the one-China principle widely recognized by the international community."

"The Chinese government and people strongly condemn such a gross encroachment on China's internal affairs," Wang said.

In their speech, delegates from many countries expressed the belief that there is no such issue as Taiwan's representation at the UN, as Resolution 2758 has solved the issue of UN representation for China, which includes Taiwan. Many said that raising the issue of Taiwan's representation constituted a violation of the UN Charter and an interference in China's internal affairs.

Some noted that despite a clear decision of the General Assembly more than 34 years ago, the repetitious and wasteful debate has consumed the assembly's valuable time and energy which should have been devoted to more substantive issues and expressed the hope this is the last time the General Committee would discuss the issue.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said early yesterday that facts have shown Taiwan, as part of China, is not qualified at all to join the UN which is made up of sovereign countries.

Since 1993, the Taiwan authority has annually goaded a handful of countries to raise such proposals to the UN General Assembly, but those proposals have all ended in failure, he said.