Ma, who has championed reconciliation with China in his nearly one year in office, described his foreign policy as "surprise-free and low-key" and said he would work to patch up further with Beijing.

But, speaking by video link with a Washington think-tank, Ma said that Taiwan still needed arms including F-16 jet fighters along with design work for submarines.

The arms are for "defensive purposes" due to China's rapid growth in military spending, Ma told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"In view of the sharp changes in the military balance across Taiwan Strait, I think this is fully justified for the US to seriously consider selling us" the weapons, Ma said.

"Don't worry that the sale of arms to us will jeopardize your relations with the mainland," Ma said. "I think even the mainland understands very well that at the moment we want to improve relations."

Ma was speaking to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act, which required the US government to supply to the island weapons of a defensive nature.

Congress approved the law when the United States recognized Beijing as China's sole government and severed ties with Taiwan, where China's nationalists fled in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communists.

President George W. Bush's administration in October proposed a 6.5 billion-dollar US arms package to Taiwan including Patriot missile defenses and Apache attack helicopters.

Even though the package did not include the F-16s, China retaliated by snapping military exchanges with the United States. It agreed to resume them after President Barack Obama took over.

Ma also asked for US support for Taiwan to enter the World Health Assembly, the supreme governing body of the World Health Organization.

China has long opposed Taiwan's entry into international bodies, fearing it would indicate the island's sovereignty.

Ma said that Taiwanese deserved equal access to international health services.

"This is very important. It's not just a political issue -- it's also an issue of human rights," Ma said, who expected a decision within the next few weeks.

Ma -- whose appearance in person in the United States would be politically unthinkable -- pledged to the new US administration that he would not stir tensions.

"My administration's foreign policy style can be aptly described as surprise-free and low-key," he said.

The Harvard-educated Ma's election last year marked the end of two decades of rule in Taiwan by presidents who sought a more distinct identity for the island and were seen as flirting with independence.

Without mentioning his predecessor by name, Ma ripped into the rule of Chen Shui-bian who led Taiwan from 2000 to 2008.

Ma said that some Taiwanese were "excessively burdened" by the legacies of the Cold War and the Chinese Civil War.

"Others have been gripped, perhaps too tightly, by the so-called victimization complex, hoping to break out and change the status quo at any cost," he said.

"Unfortunately, instead of contributing to the advancement of the nation, both mindsets had in truth only disrupted social harmony at home and incurred tension abroad," he said.

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