Mr Joseph Wu, Taiwan's de facto envoy in Washington, said he expected 'very clear support' from the United States, Japan and Canada for Taiwan's observer status with European nations, Australia and New Zealand pushing for 'meaningful participation' in the organisation.

But none of the countries support Taiwan's membership in WHO, he told reporters ahead of the May 19-24 annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the highest decision-making body of the WHO, whose 192 member countries meet once a year to agree on policies and appoint a director-general.

Mr Wu said that since 2006, the top US health official would write to the WHO chief asking the agency to accept Taiwan as an observer.

'We tried to check with the administration officials this time. My sense is that all those kinds of precious support are going to remain the same, if not more,' he said.

But Mr Wu said he expected China to use its diplomatic clout at the assembly to knock down Taiwan's bid.

'Despite this, we are very likely to see the US government take a forthcoming approach to Taiwan's participation and the government of Japan is also going to follow the US approach and I believe the Canadians will also do the same,' he said.

A US official told AFP that Washington did not support Taiwan's membership in organizations that require statehood, such as WHO, but backed 'assembly observership.'

'We have made clear for many years that we strongly favor arrangements that would allow the people of Taiwan to benefit from public health programmes available through the WHO,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Taiwan was evicted from the WHO in 1972, a year after losing the 'China' seat in the United Nations to Beijing.

Since 1997, Taipei's annual attempts to become an observer have been thwarted by Beijing, which says Taiwan has no right to join the organisation - as a member, quasi-member or an observer.

Beijing considers the self-ruled island part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Mr Wu said Taipei's communication with WHO was 'frayed' since 2005 when, according to him, the global organisation agreed with Beijing that it would consult with China before sending medical information or assistance to Taiwan.

Since the middle of last June, Taiwan has only received 16 out of 231 public health notifications issued by the WHO, he said.

From 2005 to the end of last year, Taiwan was only notified in advance of about 40 infectious disease-related technical meetings out of more than 1,000 that the WHO had held, he said.

'We were only permitted to participate in nine,' he said. 'You can see that it is becoming more difficult for us.' -- AFP