TAIPEI - ABOUT 400 supporters of Taiwan's former president held a candlelight vigil outside a suburban Taipei prison on Wednesday, a rare gesture of sympathy for a man whose detention on graft allegations has provoked little public condemnation.

A three-judge panel ordered Chen Shui-bian jailed Nov 12 to allow prosecutors to investigate the allegations, which include money laundering, looting a special presidential fund and accepting bribes.

Under Taiwanese law, Chen can be held up to four months without indictment to prevent him from colluding with alleged conspirators.

Chen has consistently professed his innocence and says he is being persecuted by President Ma Ying-jeou's new government for his pro-independence, anti-China stance.

Chen supporters at the vigil waved white roses and carried signs urging the 57-year-old former president to stay strong in the face of the prosecutorial investigation into his financial affairs.

'I came here because Chen is being treated unfairly,' said Tsao Chien-yi, 60.

He said Chen was being wrongly singled out by Ma, who took office on May 20 and favors expanded economic and political engagement with China. Taiwan split from the mainland amid civil war in 1949.

But few among Taiwan's 23 million people are convinced of Chen's innocence, despite a 16-day hunger strike last month to protest his detention.

A series of rallies organised to express support for the former leader have drawn only sparse crowds, and even senior officials from the political party that Chen helped found in 1987 have conspicuously kept their distance from him.

Frank Hsieh, who ran to succeed Chen on behalf of the Democratic Progressive Party in the March presidential elections said Tuesday the former leader should not complain and let justice take its course.

'He should quietly wait for the ruling of the court,' Hsieh told a radio interviewer.

At least two dozen of Chen's relatives and former associates have been questioned in connection with the case. -- AP