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TAIPEI - Taiwan's health minister on Thursday resigned amid a public outcry after the government said it would allow the sale of Chinese milk products with traces of the industrial chemical melamine.
"I am deeply sorry that different readings of the testing (of melamine) caused misunderstanding and uneasiness among the people and concerns in society," Lin Fang-yue told a press conference.
"I will take full responsibility and I have tendered a written resignation this morning," he said, four months into his post.
His resignation was later approved by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan, according to Cabinet spokeswoman Shih Yea-ping.
Lin, former head of leading National Taiwan University Hospital, came under fire after the health department announced late Wednesday that milk products with traces of melamine would be cleared for sale.
China has said 53,000 children have been sickened by milk products laced with melamine and four have died.
Previously Taiwan had banned the import of Chinese milk products and ordered stores to remove all remaining items from shelves after more foodstuffs were found to be tainted with melamine.
Lin had justified the U-turn saying it was based on the US Food and Drug Administration's standards.
Meanwhile, officials announced that a team of food safety experts will leave Taiwan for China on Saturday to discuss the latest scare surrounding Chinese-made products.
The pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused the government of "pleasing" China over its decision to allow sales of products containing traces of melamine.
"We strongly protest the decision as milk products should contain no melamine... The government risks Taiwanese people's health to please China," DPP lawmaker Yeh Yi-jin told reporters.
According to the economics ministry, approximately 10 per cent of the island's imported milk powder comes from China.
Taiwan this month seized nearly 10 tonnes of milk powder produced by Sanlu Group, the company originally at the centre of the health scare on the mainland.
- AFP/ir
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