Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said stabilising ties with China would be a key goal in his new administration after he was sworn in for a second term yesterday after weeks of turmoil over a disputed election.

?Uniting Taiwan, stabilising cross-Strait relations, a safe society and a prosperous economy ? these are all the pressing desires of the people and the government?s necessary goals for the future,? Chen said in his inauguration speech.

He also said a new constitution, planned by 2008, would not touch on the sensitive sovereignty issue ? a red line for China, which regards the island as a wayward province that must return to the fold, by force if necessary. ?Taiwan?s society has not reached a dominant consensus on issues involving national sovereignty, territory and reunification or independence, and thus I suggest that these issues are not appropriate for this constitutional reform,? Chen said in his inauguration speech marking his second term in office. Chen, who survived an assassination attempt a day before the March 20 election, was re-elected by a razor-thin margin. During his campaign, he stressed he could best protect Taiwan from China, which has hundreds of missiles pointed at the island and has been building up naval power to back its threats.

China has offered Taipei economic, diplomatic and other benefits if Chen agreed Taiwan and the mainland were part of ?one China?. But in one of its toughest statements so far, Beijing warned Chen on Monday to pull back from a ?dangerous lurch toward independence? or be crushed ?firmly and thoroughly at any cost?. A conflict in the Taiwan Strait would quickly draw in Taiwan?s chief ally, the United States, and cause market and geopolitical instability in the region. Chen said Chinese military threats would only alienate the island?s 23 million people and called for dialogue with the island?s giant neighbour that would not rule out any form of future relations with China.

?Leaders of both sides of the Taiwan Strait should have a new way of thinking to resolve future problems,? he said. Taiwan?s top judicial official, Weng Yueh-sheng, administered the oath at the presidential palace in Taipei as steady drizzle fell outside, with top government officials and foreign dignitaries in attendance. His rival in the presidential race, Nationalist leader Lien Chan, has refused to concede, saying the election-eve shooting that lightly wounded Chen and his vice president may have been staged to win sympathy votes. Lien has filed two lawsuits to overturn Chen?s victory and seek a new election.

Taiwan?s main opposition Nationalist Party hung a banner reading: ?No truth, no president? on the facade of its Taipei headquarters facing the presidential palace, where Chen delivered his speech. A nine-day recount ended on Tuesday, but the courts have yet to rule on an election recount demanded by the opposition that produced about 40,000 questionable ballots.

Chen, wearing a dark suit and a red tie, and Vice President Annette Lu took their oaths before the red-white-and-blue national flag and a portrait of Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary who overthrew China?s last dynasty in 1911 and founded the Republic of China. Beijing and Taipei have been diplomatic and military rivals since their split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but trade, investment and tourism have blossomed since the late 1980s.

The Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 after Chiang Kai-shek?s Nationalists lost a civil war to Mao Zedong?s Communists. More than five decades of Nationalist rule in Taiwan ended in 2000 when Chen won the presidential election. Security was unprecedentedly tight in and around the presidential palace. Chen wore a bulletproof vest and delivered his speech behind bulletproof glass.

Alice Hung