(Adds Chinese health minister paragraphs 9-10, background) By Laura MacInnis GENEVA, May 14 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) refused on Monday to consider membership for Taiwan, agreeing at its annual assembly with China's position that only sovereign states could join. Taiwan, a self-governed island of 23 million people seen by China as a breakaway province, has warned that its exclusion from the 193-state United Nations agency could undermine global efforts to fight fast-spreading diseases such as bird flu. For the past decade, Taiwan has unsuccessfully sought observer status at the WHO. On the opening day of this year's assembly a small group of countries that recognise Taipei went a step further and pushed for a debate on membership for Taiwan. The call was rejected by 148 votes to 17. Taiwanese Health Minister Hou Sheng-mou said Taipei would continue to push for WHO membership. "We will keep on trying," he told journalists after the vote. Taiwan argues that China showed indifference to the island when the SARS epidemic struck there four years ago, causing delays in the dispatching of WHO medical experts. Taiwan has not yet had a human case of H5N1 bird flu but the deadly virus has reached several of its neighbours as well as mainland China. 'ONE CHINA' POLICY China considers Taiwan part of its territory and under its "one China" policy forbids diplomatic allies from official contact with Taipei. It opposes Taiwan's membership of most international organisations. Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed two years ago between China and the WHO, Beijing will allow the U.N. agency to send experts to investigate any disease outbreak on the island. Taiwanese health officials have also been able to attend some WHO technical meetings. Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang said a second memorandum of understanding was being considered to further draw Taiwan into the global health network and ensure international rules on sharing information about disease outbreaks are upheld there. "Under the one China principle, all health issues can be easily discussed and solved," Gao told reporters in Geneva, depicting Taiwan's interest in representing itself at the WHO as a purely strategic one. "The essence of the issue is not health but rather politics," he said, speaking through an interpreter. The press watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Monday condemned the U.N.'s refusal to accredit Taiwanese journalists to cover the WHO assembly, which runs until May 23. Calling it "appalling discrimination," the Paris-based group said the decision "panders to Beijing's hostility to any Taiwanese presence within international bodies." The right of Taiwanese reporters to cover the assembly was withdrawn in 2004 under pressure from China. (Additional reporting by Richard Waddington)
