The United Daily News said the United States, Taiwan's leading arms supplier, scotched the deal for Russian-made Su-27 jets after a Taiwan delegation visited Moscow in December 1991.

Washington has been Taiwan's leading arms supplier despite its switch of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Then Russian president Boris Yeltsin gave the green light for the landmark talks, the paper said quoting a report filed by Taiwan's former top science development affairs official.

Meng Hsien-yu, an official stationed in Taiwan's mission in Germany and who had quietly visited Moscow nine times for the purpose, said the plan was killed "after the United States learned of the plan and exercised pressure on Taiwan."

George Bush, then US president, announced in September 1992 the sale of 150 F-16 fighters to Taiwan for 5.8 billion US dollars.

In the same year, Taipei and France also struck a deal for the acqusition of 60 French-made Mirage 2000-5s at a price of 3.8 billion US dollars.

The deals were aimed at boosting Taiwan's air defenses against China, which has vowed to retake the island by force if necessary after the two split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

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