TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan&nbsp;warned&nbsp;Honduras&nbsp;on Thursday not to be tempted by the "poison" of&nbsp;aid&nbsp;from&nbsp;China&nbsp;no matter how indebted it was and ruled out getting involved in a bidding war for diplomatic allies with its mainland rival.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro said&nbsp;on Tuesday she had asked her foreign minister to open official relations with&nbsp;China. If the Central American country does end relations with&nbsp;Taiwan, it would leave the island with only 13 diplomatic allies.
Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina said&nbsp;on Wednesday the decision to switch allegiance to&nbsp;China&nbsp;was partly because&nbsp;Honduras&nbsp;was "up to its neck" in financial challenges and debt - including $600 million it owes&nbsp;Taiwan.
"We remind the Honduran government that it should not quench its thirst with poison, even if fully parched by debt obligations," the&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;ministry said.
Reina said&nbsp;Honduras&nbsp;had asked&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;to double its annual&nbsp;aid&nbsp;to $100 million but never received an answer.&nbsp;Honduras&nbsp;also tried to renegotiate the debt but it came to nothing.
Taiwan&nbsp;denied that, saying comments&nbsp;from&nbsp;the Honduran foreign minister did not reflect facts of their communications.&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;responded positively to&nbsp;Honduras&nbsp;proposals&nbsp;from&nbsp;start to finish, it said.
"We're still trying to maintain diplomatic ties, doing our best to fight for it, but we will absolutely not engage in money competition with&nbsp;China," the ministry said.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said&nbsp;former&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;allies like Panama, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador have seen "rapid development" in bilateral relations, bringing them "tangible benefits".
China&nbsp;is willing to develop ties with all countries, including&nbsp;Honduras, on the basis of the "one&nbsp;China" principle, he said, referring to Beijing's position that&nbsp;China&nbsp;and&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;are part of one country.
"I believe this will create more opportunities for the economic development of&nbsp;Honduras&nbsp;and the well-being of its people."
The United States,&nbsp;Taiwan's most important international backer despite the absence of formal ties, was watching with concern as&nbsp;China&nbsp;has increased its footprint in Latin America at the expense of&nbsp;Taiwan.
The U.S. State Department said&nbsp;on Wednesday that&nbsp;China&nbsp;makes many promises it does not follow through on.
"The Honduran Government should be aware that the PRC (People's Republic of&nbsp;China) makes many promises that are unfulfilled," a State Department spokesperson said.
China&nbsp;does not allow countries with which it has diplomatic relations to maintain official ties with&nbsp;Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;strongly disputes.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Faith Hung; Additional reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill)

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Taiwan warns Honduras against 'poison' of taking aid from China