The People's Daily said legal changes to embed Taiwan's shock change of policy ``would be a dangerous separatist step and an extremely grave provocation that, if carried out, would render peaceful reunification impossible''.

``As everyone with even the slightest knowledge about the Chinese nation knows, reunification of the motherland is loftier and larger than everything else,'' the Communist Party flagship said in a front-page commentary.

China says it would invade Taiwan if the island, which it regards as a renegade province, declared independence. Chinese leader Jiang Zemin told US President Bill Clinton on Sunday that Beijing did not rule out the use of force.

Many military experts doubt China's ability to carry out the threat, at least for five to 10 years.

But it could carry out menacing war games, as itdid in the lead-up to Taiwan's 1996 Presidential election. Then, Chinese ships fired missiles into Taiwan waters, prompting the United States to send two aircraft-carrier battle groups to the area.

US Defence Secretary William Cohen, asked this week if he planned to send additional naval forces to the China-Taiwan area, told reporters at the Pentagon: ``Not at this time.''

A mainland-based news website -- www.Easy.Com.Cn -- quoted an ``authoritative Chinese source close to the military'' as saying China would take unspecified military action against Taiwan to preempt Lee from taking further steps toward independence.

``We will strike if America doesn't intervene, and we will strike if America intervenes,'' the source was quoted as saying.

The military action would ``leave a deep impression on Taiwan'' and severely hurt its economy, the source added.

The report quoted other unnamed sources as saying China could impose a blockade of Taiwan's ship and air traffic, destroying vessels or aircraft thatchallenged the cordon.

The military newspaper Liberation Army Daily ran a long and detailed feature today on a May 9 exercise in which paratroopers from the Jinan military region in eastern China stormed a beach.

China's own military shot down a report by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper -- often used as an unofficial tool of Chinese foreign policy -- that it was on alert over the row with Taiwan.

``Our top task is to fight floods,'' said one military spokesman as several Chinese provinces put out flood alerts.

Still, Beijing has been in a rage since Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's abandonment last week of the `One China' policy and his insistence that talks on sorting out problems on the path to reunification be conducted on a ``state-to-state'' basis.

It has vilified the man state media has called ``the scum of the nation'' in personal attacks intended to differentiate between Taiwan's leadership and its ordinary citizens.

Today the People's Daily said Lee would be ``nailed tothe pillar of eternal shame'' for tampering with the one-China principle that had been the basis of China-Taiwan relations.

Lee says his insistence on equality in the relationship is not a precursor to a decisive break from China but repeated that Taiwan could only embrace a democratic China.

The second serious China-Taiwan showdown since 1996 has drawn international concern, especially in Washington, at Beijing's reiteration of its military threats.

Clinton said he had told Jiang in Sunday's telephone conversation that the United States would have serious concerns with ``any abridgment'' of peaceful China-Taiwan dialogue.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said senior diplomats would go to Beijing and Taipei this week in an effort to calm the tensions.