TAIPEI, Nov 20, 2007 (AFP) - Taiwan's high court Tuesday upheld a ruling in favour of two opposition leaders in their libel lawsuit against President Chen Shui-bian, who accused them of attempting a "soft coup," a court official said.

In 2005, the Taipei district court ruled that Chen had damaged the "reputation and integrity" of Lien Chan, a former chairman of the Kuomintang party who ran against him in the 2004 presidential race, and Lien's running mate James Soong, leader of the People First Party.

The district court also fined the president a symbolic one Taiwan dollar (three US cents), the amount the plaintiffs had sought, and ordered him to run half-page apologies in three local newspapers.

Chen could appeal the high court ruling in the supreme court, the official said.

The president caused an uproar in 2004 when he openly said the two opposition parties had tried to topple his government through a "soft coup" in mass rallies staged after he was re-elected president.

"We're not talking about a military coup. It's a so-called 'soft coup.' They did not virtually mobilise tanks and cannons," Chen had said.

Chen had alleged that some "protest leaders" at the rallies had threatened to storm the presidential office, while others had tried to "persuade the police and the military to overthrow the government."

For weeks after the vote, which Chen won by just 0.22 percent, tens of thousands of opposition supporters held sometimes round-the-clock protests outside his office alleging the vote had been unfair.

Among the irregularities they charged was an election-eve shooting that slightly injured Chen and his running mate Annette Lu.

The opposition parties said the shooting was staged by the ruling party in an attempt to win the sympathy vote.

The president has made other blunders.

Chen earlier this year lost another libel suit to Soong for alleging that Soong had met secretly with a leading Chinese official and was ordered by the district court to pay three million dollars in damages. He can appeal the verdict.