"The defense ministry should get tough...to tell Japan that it must not bully Taiwan," Lin Yu-fang, a parliamentarian of the opposition People First Party, told reporters.

Lin demanded that the navy send its Knox-class missile frigates to the waters northeast of the island, which Taiwanese fishermen insist has been their fishing ground for centuries.

"If the defense ministry does not respond positively, then the odds of the defense ministry's special arms package clearing the legislature would be zero," said Lin, an active member of parliament's national defense committee.

He also threatened to push for cuts in the 2006 defense budget of at least 50 billion Taiwan dollars (1.6 billion US).

Chen Chieh, parliamentary whip of the leading opposition Kuomintang party, said that "the military should be ready to fight for the country's interests."

The defense ministry in March reintroduced a 15.2-billion US dollar arms bill in parliament after an initial 19.3-billion-dollar proposal was rejected. But the new bill has also failed to clear parliament.

The arms package, approved by the cabinet, calls for the purchase of six PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile systems, eight conventional submarines and a fleet of submarine-hunting P-3C aircraft from the US over a 15-year period.

A flotilla of about 50 Taiwanese fishing boats last week staged a protest near what Tokyo considers the median line in the East China Sea, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Japan's Yonaguni Island.

The fishermen accused Japan's coast guard of "bullying" them inside what they regard as their traditional fishing grounds.

Taiwanese fishermen were particularly annoyed by what they said was the military authorities' cowardice in the face of Japan, which deployed additional patrol boats and surveillance aircraft during the demonstration.

Disgruntled fishermen threatened to fly the flag of the rival People's Republic of China while fishing in the disputed waters.

At Taipei's demand, Tokyo is prepared to resume talks "late June or early July," foreign ministry spokesman Michel Lu told AFP.

The two sides have held 14 rounds of negotiations on fishing disputes since 1996 without reaching any agreement.

The East China Sea is the scene of several disputes between China, Japan and Taiwan, which all claim a chain of islets, known as Senkaku in Japanese and as Diaoyu in Chinese, 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yonaguni.

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