UNITED NATIONS – With the United Nations blocking his satellite beamed image from entering its headquarters, the president of Taiwan yesterday reinvigorated his nation’s campaign to become a member of the international body.

President Chen held an unprecedented video press conference via satellite, making a passionate plea to U.N. correspondents, as the General Assembly began its 59th session.

The press conference, which was presented at the U.N. Plaza Hotel, across the street from the U.N. building, was originally scheduled for the United Nations Correspondents Association room inside the Turtle Bay building.

After the association informed Secretary-General Annan of its intent to carry the video conference and asked for permission to mount the satellite equipment, U.N. legal advisers summarily nixed the idea.

Mr. Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, yesterday referred to Mr. Chen, the only fairly elected head of state in the region, as “someone who calls himself the president of Taiwan.” He argued that the U.N. does not recognize Taiwan, and therefore its representatives would not be allowed in the building, which he said, “belongs to governments” of member states.

A representative of at least one government that has never been recognized by the General Assembly – that of the horrific Taliban regime in Afghanistan – had not been blocked a few years ago from holding a press conference inside the U.N.

China’s ambassador, Wang Guangya, told The New York Sun on Monday of his government’s attempt to block the press conference, arguing that the U.N. only recognizes “one China” and therefore the press conference should not be allowed in the building.

“Only an undemocratic, dictatorial, and authoritarian country would think to deprive the right of others to speak,” the Taiwanese president told a packed room that included a reporter from the Communist government-owned People’s Daily of China.

Speaking from his marbled office in Taipei, Mr. Chen argued that his nation’s attempt to join the U.N. does not contradict a 1971 General Assembly resolution that conferred on communist Beijing the right for a sole Chinese seat at the U.N. body. “We are not seeking to represent China in the U.N.,” he said. “Taiwan is Taiwan.”

He added that the fact that Germany had two seats during the Cold War did not prevent its eventual reunification, and that the two Koreas also might reunite one day.

Since his recent re-election, Mr. Chen has stepped up his quest to join the U.N. and other international bodies, a drive seen by some as a possible step toward declaring independence. On the eve of the opening of the annual meeting here, posters were mounted on Manhattan bus stops, declaring Taiwan’s exclusion “UNfair.”

In his conference, Mr. Chen at times got personal, at one point displaying his wife’s ID card for the Special Olympics in Athens. The wheelchair bound Wu Shu-jen, who was injured in a traffic accident 20 years ago, is the head of Taiwan’s team to the Paralympics, but under Beijing’s pressure she was forced to give up her credentials. “If someone in her position is not qualified to lead the delegation, then who is?” Mr. Chen asked.