Taiwan is not a recognized nation at the United Nations and enjoys no access to the UN headquarters building which belongs to governments, a UN spokesman said Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters in New York that although the UN chief "respects the freedom of the press, the Headquarters building belongs to Governments."

After receiving stop signals from the UN Secretariat, the UN Correspondents Association, know as UNCA, decided to cancel an attempted press event initiated by the Taiwan authorities to show Taiwan leader Chen Shuibian's image inside the UN premises.

"On the advice of his Legal Counsel, the Secretary-General felt there was a contradiction between a press conference with a purported official representative of Taiwan and UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, concerning the status of China," Eckhard said.

"Taiwan is not a recognized nation at the United Nations. That creates, in the view of the Legal Counsel, a unique case, in which the scheduled event would be in direct contradiction with a General Assembly resolution," he said.

The UN General Assembly passed resolution 2758 in 1971, declaring the People's Republic of China "as the only legitimate representative of China." The resolution expelled Taiwan from all UN organizations and agencies.

Trying to dissuade UNCA from breaching the resolution, UN Under Secretary-General for public information Shashi Tharoor, said in a formal letter to UNCA that by doing so, the group is "creating news rather than reporting news."

UNCA President Tony Jenkins said earlier that he will preside over the event in a nearby hotel as a private person, but not in his capacity as president of the UN journalist group.

"Freedom to meet and speak is the oxygen which animates our profession," he said in a letter to Annan, noting that the UN Secretariat has no authority over his group, which is not a UN organ.

Source: Xinhua