TAIPEI, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Taiwan gives $10 million a year in aid to the Marshall Islands, an allied nation that has helped Taipei's fight for international recognition, the South Pacific archipelago's foreign minister said on Friday.

Taiwan looks to the Marshalls and 22 other diplomatic allies worldwide for political legitimacy as China pressures those mostly small, impoverished nations to break ties.

China, with about 170 allies including the world's most powerful nations, has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and pledged to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary.

Both China and Taiwan use chequebook diplomacy to forge ties with smaller countries in need of aid.

Taiwan aid to the Marshalls, which kicked in shortly after diplomatic ties were formed in 1998, comes to about 11.5 percent of the 60,000 population South Pacific nation's annual budget.

The approximately $10 million in aid each year goes toward capital projects and recurring expenses, said Foreign Minister Tony deBrum.

Taiwan says it also funds solar energy projects and medical services in the Marshalls, which gets by largely on U.S. aid, subsistence farming and handicrafts.

Taiwan normally asks its diplomatic partners to give it a voice in the United Nations and other international bodies from which China blocks its membership.

"Foreign policy needs sustainability, so we will keep up our aid," Taiwan foreign ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh said. "Taiwan makes this promise to its allies." (Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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