TAIPEI (Reuters) - China and Taiwan have agreed to restart official dialogue after a gap of nearly a decade, Taiwan Vice President-elect Vincent Siew said on Monday as relations appear to thaw under a new more China-friendly administration.
Siew held a historic meeting with China President Hu Jintaoduring an economic forum in China over the weekend, where thetwo agreed to restart talks that have been frozen since 1999,Siew told reporters after his return.
"There's a lot of ice here, so we don't want to melt it allat once and turn it into a flood," Siew said. "We need time,wisdom and will power to accumulate goodwill and mutual trust."
China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory sincethe end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and pledged to bringthe island under its rule, by force if necessary.
Siew said it was too early to comment on a timetable, butthat both sides wanted to start talks as soon as possible.
The last eight years have seen relations across the TaiwanStrait sour under the administration of outgoing President ChenShui-bian, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) favoursformal independence from China.
But last month, voters overwhelmingly picked the mainopposition candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, and running mate Siew, ofthe Nationalist Party (KMT), to become Taiwan's next presidentand vice president, partly on the promise of better China ties.
The pair will take office on May 20.
Ma added: "After May 20 we will immediately push forresumption of talks between the two sides, and we hope that itcan happen very quickly."
China and Taiwan began an official dialogue after reachingthe so-called 1992 consensus, in which both sides agreed toadhere to their own interpretation of the "one China" policyinsisted on by Beijing before any talks could occur.
But the talks broke off in 1999 when then-president LeeTeng-hui defined ties as "special state-to-state" relations.
(Reporting by Doug Young and Roger Tung; Editing by NickMacfie)
