Edward Ross, a top official with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, lambasted Taiwan's political leaders for turning a 10 billion dollar special defense budget into a "political football."

In a speech in San Diego late Monday to the US-Taiwan Business Council, Ross said US government officials, members of Congress and business people were increasingly raising questions about Taiwan's commitment to its own defense.

"They ask us, 'if Taiwan is not willing to properly invest in its own self-defense, why should we, the US, provide for its self-defense,'" he said. "It's a reasonable question."

At a time when American troops are in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "an increasing number of Americans are asking hard questions about how much we are willing to sacrifice for the security and democracy of others."

The United States in 2001 approved the sale of eight diesel electric submarines, 12 P3 surveillance planes and advanced Patriot missile defense systems.

But the special budget created to finance the acquisitions has failed to gain approval in the Taiwanese legislature.

President Chen Shui-bian also has consistently put economic and social spending ahead of defense, Ross said.

As Taiwan's defense budgets have declined, China has sustained double digit increases in defense spending over the past decade, he said.

Taiwan appears to have "calculated US intervention heavily into their resource allocation equation and elected to reduce defense spending despite an ever prosperous and stable economy. And this short-change math does not work," he said.

"You see, China is also doing the math and has accounted for the possibility of foreign intervention. Their conclusion: buy more submarines and anti-submarine cruise missiles."

He said the United States, for its part, was watching China's military modernization and the stalemate in Taiwan over defense spending - "and we're doing our own math."

"We do not live in a world of absolutes. And the time of reckoning is upon us," he said.

"In the end, the US ability to contribute to Taiwan's defense in a crisis is going to be measured against Taiwan's ability to resist, defend and survive based on its own capabilities," he said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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