Democrats said on Friday that the resolution, repeating a US pledge to help Taiwan maintain a sufficient self-defense capability merely reaffirms existing law.

"Our position has been the same before and after the President's trip to China," Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said in explaining why Democrats stampeded to support what had originated as a largely republican slap at Clinton.

During his recent China tour, Clinton publicly stated that Washington's opposition to Taiwanese independence, a separate Taiwan government and the island nation's bid to join the United Nations that brought sharp criticism from Taiwanese leaders, who fear such a public pledge could diminish Taiwan's efforts for more world recognition, and from congressional conservatives.

Clinton also talked about thepeaceful "unification" of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, using a word that does not appear in any US doctrine nor is it part of the US "one China" policy. Conservatives have argued that Clinton altered the US position on the relationship between the mainland and Taiwan by moving closer to China's position on unification.

The resolution, by majority leader Trent Lott and senator Robert Torricelli, was approved without debate. Lott billed it as needed to repair the damage that has been done by Clinton's remarks.

Passage of this resolution sends a powerful signal that the "Senate is not accepting President Clinton's new policy", Lott said. "It's a strong statement coming so soon after his return to the United States."

At the White House, presidential spokesman Mike McCurry disputed Lott's characterization.

"First and foremost, understand that the majority leader is wrong when he discusses a new policy," McCurry said. "There is not any new policy. There was simply a reiteration of a policy thatpresumably senator Lott abides by." Asked what the US would do if China attacked Taiwan, McCurry said nothing has changed since the 1979 Taiwan relations measure.

It expresses an expectation that "the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means, with the consent of the people of Taiwan" and repeats a US pledge to help Taiwan "maintain a sufficient self-defense capability".

The measure also calls on China to renounce the use of force against Taiwan.

Its supporters said the non-binding measure does nothing to increase the US commitment to the island's self-defense, leaving any such future decisions up to the President and Congress, as does the 1979 Act.

House majority whip Tom Delay, R-Texas, said he would introduce the resolution in the House, saying it was needed to clarify Clinton's ambiguous comments.

The "one China" policy was coined in 1972 by President Nixon as a way of recognizing the Chinese position that there is only one China, inclusive of Taiwan, while stopping short ofofficial US recognition that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China.

Taiwan, an island of 21 million people, is the seat of the nationalist government that fled the communist takeover of the Chinese mainland in 1949. China considers Taiwan a renegade province with no right to its own foreign relations.

China opposes all official contact between Washington and Taipei. In December 1994, tensions escalated when China test-fired missiles in waters near Taiwan, exercises that prompted strong US criticism and an American decision to dispatch warships to the area.