TAIPEI (AFP) - A driver tried to ram his car early on Tuesday into the residence of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, in the second such incident in a year.

Chen Ping-sung attempted to ram a door of Mr Ma's guarded residence in central Taipei, the police said. But the sedan's tyres were punctured by metal spikes installed on the ground as a security measure and the door was undamaged, they said.

Chen had attached a bucket of red paint to his front bumper which spilt onto the car. He was arrested on the spot by security men and taken to a nearby police station for questioning.

Mr Ma was jogging in the residential compound at the time, said his spokesman Ma Wei-kuo.

The suspect told the police he was trying to protest at negligence by the government bureaucracy which had caused many medical disputes.

In January a man, angry at a court ruling in a case involving his divorced wife, rammed a 35-tonne truck through a bulletproof screen and into the main gate of the presidential office.