TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's President-elect Chen Shui-bian sought on Wednesday to reassure the United States and China that he would not provoke the democratic island's giant communist neighbor or "create trouble" in his inaugural speech.

Chen, whose election victory in March unnerved Beijing, said his inaugural speech on May 20 would "at the very least definitely satisfy the U.S. side.""The international community would definitely affirm it," Chen told Nataleh Bellochi, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's representative office in Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic relations. His comments were broadcast on television.

"Even if China is not satisfied, at the very least we will not give the Chinese Communists any excuse to say we are provoking them or that we are creating trouble," Chen added.

Tension between Taipei and Beijing has been running high since Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party espouses independence from China, won the elections to end more than five decades of Nationalist rule in Taiwan.

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Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province.

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