Taiwan authorities "temporarily and officially" closed the tombs, located in Taoyuan County, of former Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, on Monday, according to reports by Taiwan-based media.

Early this month, Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian said that Taiwan's army would no longer send troops to guard the tombs of the famous father and his son. On Sunday, military guards, who had stood at attention there for the past 32 years, were withdrawn, immediately following the closure of the tomb administration.

After the two men died, in 1975 and 1988, respectively, their bodies were not given traditional burials. Instead, their coffins were temporarily placed in two separate sites in Taoyuan.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2007)