Taiwan?s interior minister, Yu Cheng-hsien, offered to resign yesterday after police cracked down on protestors outside the presidential office in the most violent demonstration since the election on March 20.

On Saturday night, protestors tried to storm President Chen Shui-bian?s office to demand an independent inquiry into a mysterious election-eve assassination attempt on Chen that they suspect may have been staged for sympathy votes.

They threw bottles, chairs and road barriers at riot police wielding full-length shields and batons for self defense. A man was taken to hospital with blood dripping from his head. ?The premier has received a letter of resignation from Minister Yu and is considering it? the cabinet?s secretary general, Liu Shih-fang, told a news conference.

Chen won the election by a narrow 30 000 votes , a day after a bullet gashed him across the abdomen while he was campaigning in Taiwan. He has denied staging the attack, saying the accusations were an insult to his integrity. The state-run Central News Agency said Yu had verbally offered to resign after the attempt, to take responsibility for the failure of police to protect the president.

The Interior Ministry, in charge of the police force, has come under additional pressure following the clash outside the presidential office on Saturday night.

Yu told an earlier news conference that he had faxed a letter to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, a senior member of the opposition Nationalist Party, to ask him to disperse the protestors.

Ma told reporters the order was inappropriate because the mayor and the interior minister are equal-ranking cabinet-level ministers.