SINGAPORE, Oct 11 (AFP) Singapore elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew warned in an interview published here Wednesday that Beijing was ready to go to war over Taiwan and Tibet, and urged Washington to accept that both are part of China.

The former prime minister, who has close ties with senior Chinese leaders, said he was told during a visit to Beijing last August that Taiwan will not be allowed to use ties with the United States as a lever to pursue independence.

Lee said Chinese officials told him that if Taiwan persists with such efforts, "we cannot rule out the use of force."

He was speaking in an interview with Global Viewpoint, a commentary service of the Los Angeles Times, which was serialized by Singapore's Straits Times Lee said Washington had touched a sore point in Taiwan and Tibet and "the Chinese have thus responded ferociously."

"This is a very dangerous zone to prod. Anything that threatens China's unity is cause for war," he added, noting Beijing was ready to compromise on disputes like trade and intellectual property rights. "But if the US interferes with the unity of China, that is a hostile act. They will respond, and damn the consequences."

US-China ties are now on the mend after Washington issued a visa in June to President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan, a move that caused relations to plunge. Beijing has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since the defeated Kuomintang regime fled there in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.

China also reacted strongly after US President Bill Clinton met briefly in Washington last month with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, which has been under four decades of communist Chinese rule.

The US government recognises Tibet as an autonomous region under Chinese rule. The US Congress, however, has passed some measures recognising the Dalai Lama to be Tibet's political as well as spiritual leader, a move that observers in Beijing suggest could generate confusion among Chinese leaders.

Clinton is scheduled to meet later this month with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in New York to continue efforts to improve relations.

"The US must simply accept that Tibet is part of China, that Taiwan is part of China. It should stop challenging that," Lee said. "If the Dalai Lama is led to believe through five-minute photo opportunities with President Clinton that he can act like Lee Teng-hui, China will not 'sit idly by,' as the Chinese put it." "If Tibet is part of China, then why is the US president seeing this rebel? If Tibet isn't part of China, is the US going to liberate it?" Lee asked.

On Chinese military capabilities, Lee said the collapse of the Soviet Union was a "bonue" for China because it turned cash-strapped Russia into an arms market with sophisticated weapons for sale.

"Now the best is there for the picking by the Chinese and others. It is a fire sale, an arms bazaar," he said, adding that this allowed China to leapfrog a long period of research and development to get modern weaponry.

Lee dismissed perceptions that Washington was deliberately trying to contain China, but said Chinese leaders were Convinced otherwise China is also concerned about a Japanese military threat, which Lee described as "Probably more psychological than real."

"The brutal, cruel efficiency by which the Japanese, with inferior numbers of troops but superior weaponry, were able to go so deep into China earlier in this century has left a scar as yet unhealed." Lee said.

"The Chinese leaders are fearful of a resurgent Japan," Lee added, repeating his earlier assertions that East Asian nations including China wanted the US military presence in the region, seen as a balancing force, to continue.

"I think the Chinese want the US round at least until they grow strong."