Beijing: The Australian government is backing the right of Taiwan to attend a global health summit in Geneva next week, after China blocked Taiwan's invitation.

Taiwan's annual participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) has been its most important symbol of international participation for the past nine years.

But a worsening diplomatic spat with China has resulted in the World Health Organisation stating that its director-general, Margaret Chan, is unable to issue an invitation to Taiwan for the first time in almost a decade.

Fairfax Media has learnt that Australia is among a group of countries who have made representations to the WHO in recent days in support of Taiwan attending the Geneva meeting on May 22.