BEIJING (Reuters) - China has invited Taiwan to hold more talks, state media said on Thursday, as ties between the two sometimes bitter diplomatic and political rivals warm following the election of a new, more pro-Chinese president on the island.
China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait,the country's main channel for talks in the absence of formalrelations, has sent a letter to its Taiwan counterpart, theStraits Exchange Foundation, proposing the dialogue, Xinhuanews agency said.
The letter invites Taiwan to send a delegation to Chinafrom June 11 to 14 to talk about opening regular charterflights between the two sides and letting Chinese touristsvisit the island, the report said.
"We hope the talks will make progress on the two issues tomeet the expectations of people from both sides of the Strait,"Xinhua quoted the letter as saying.
China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan sincethe end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing has vowed tobring the island back under mainland rule, by force ifnecessary.
There are no regular direct flights, aside from a fewcharters on certain holidays, and Taiwan now tightly controlsthe number of Chinese it lets visit, citing security.
But relations have warmed following the election of MaYing-jeou as Taiwan president in March, whose NationalistParty, or Kuomintang, regained power from the pro-independenceDemocratic Progressive Party with which Beijing refused todeal.
Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung is currently inChina and on Wednesday met Chinese President Hu Jintao.
There is no timetable for resuming political talks, frozensince 1999, but the two sides have edged closer since theNationalists regained the presidency and echoed the Chineseline that both sides are part of a single nation.
Ma hopes to launch direct weekend flights between Chineseand Taiwan cities by July and initially allow up to 3,000Chinese tourists per day.
Direct flights will shorten and cheapen commutes for Taiwaninvestors who have poured up to $100 billion (50.5 billionpounds) in China since detente began in the late 1980s.Currently they must make time-consuming stopovers in Hong Kongor other Asian cities.
The Nationalists, who ruled all of China until 1949, hopeforging closer economic links with China will buoy Taiwan'seconomy, but it is in no hurry to unify with the mainland.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
