The Vice-President of Taiwan, Lien Chan, is in Singapore on a private visit which has aroused the anger of the authorities in mainland China. Singapore, which maintains close ties with Beijing, has played down the significance of Mr Lien's visit, although his four-day stay is expected to include informal meetings with the Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, and other senior government officials. From Singapore, here's our South-East Asia correspondent, Simon Ingram:

The details of Lien Chan's visit to Singapore have been shrouded in secrecy. Although word of his travel plans emerged in Taipei early in the week, the first official comment here came only today, in the pro-government Straits Times.

A brief article buried on the inside pages quoted an Information Ministry spokesman as saying that Mr Lien and his family were coming for a private vacation. The paper said it understood that Mr Lien would do some sightseeing and play golf with friends.

It did not mention that those friends would almost certainly include Singapore's Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, and other senior government figures. This stress on the informality of the visit has failed to dampen the irritation of mainland China, whose long-running efforts to maintain Taiwan's diplomatic isolation led it to make a formal protest over the affair to Singapore on Tuesday.

Singapore maintains close and cordial relations with China and officially supports Beijing's line that the mainland and Taiwan are part of one sovereign country - but this has not prevented it from establishing some important links with Taipei. These have allowed, among other things, the Singapore armed forces to conduct regular, if little-publicized, training on Taiwanese soil.