TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S detained former president Chen Shui-bian has rejected an appeal from his wife to plead guilty to corruption charges, his former lawyer said on Thursday.

The Taipei-based Next Magazine said Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, made the appeal last month in a letter which called on him to help their son Chen Chih-chung and daughter Chen Hsing-yu, who face charges linked to his own.

A spokesman for Chen confirmed that Wu had sent a letter urging her husband to plead guilty but said she was unaware of its details.

Mr Cheng Wen-lung, Chen's former lawyer, told reporters on Thursday, after visiting Chen in the jail outside Taipei where he has been held since December, that the former president had rejected Wu's appeal.

Chen, who left office last year after the maximum presidential term of eight years, has been accused of embezzlement, money laundering, accepting bribes, influence peddling and forgery.

However, he insists that the allegations against him and his family are politically motivated and at the behest of his China-friendly successor, President Ma Ying-jeou. Chen also accused prosecutors of coercing his family.

'This is a method being used by the prosecutors... by threatening my family so they can force me to plead guilty,' Chen was quoted by Mr Cheng as saying.

He said Chen was referring to prosecutors' decision to prevent daughter Chen Hsing-yu, a 33-year-old dentist, who has been accused of perjury, from leaving Taiwan to attend a dental programme in New York.

To help his daughter, Chen last week wrote to Mr Ma warning that she 'could go mad or even attempt suicide' if prevented from leaving Taiwan. Chen said the accusations against him should have no bearing on his daughter, although she was named a defendant in the case earlier this month after she admitted lying to prosecutors.

Chen's plea was rejected by Mr Ma, who is on a trip to Central America. -- AFP