By Ralph Jennings and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Taiwan will hold talksnext month to hammer out the first steps in opening regulardirect flights between the two sometimes bitter rivals, as tieswarm following the election of a new president on the island.
China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait,the country's main channel for talks in the absence of formalgovernment relations, will meet its Taiwan counterpart, theStraits Exchange Foundation, in Beijing from June 11-14,Taiwan's top negotiator said on Thursday.
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.
"Negotiations between the two sides have been dropped forquite a long time," Taiwan's top negotiator, P.K. Chiang, tolda news conference.
"So for me to take office and start talks right away onsome key issues, I think the meaning of that alone is great."
The focus of the talks will be the opening of regulardirect charter flights between the two sides as early as Julyand letting as many as 3,000 Chinese tourists visit the islanddaily.
There are currently no regular direct flights, aside from afew charters on holidays. China-bound passengers from Taiwanmust change planes in Hong Kong or Macau, aggravating Taiwaninvestors who have poured up to $100 billion into China sincedetente began in the late 1980s.
Taiwan now tightly controls the number of Chinese tourists,citing security and visa overstay concerns.
There is no timetable for resuming political talks, frozensince 1999, but the two sides have edged closer since theelection of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan president in March. Ma'sNationalist Party regained power from the pro-independenceDemocratic Progressive Party with which Beijing refused todeal.
The June talks should lead to more high-level discussionslater on, Taiwan's Chiang said.
China's half-page invitation letter, received in Taiwan onThursday in response to a note from Taiwan, says the talksshould produce "positive achievements" that will "satisfycompatriots on both sides of the Strait".
"We hope the talks will make progress on the two issues tomeet the expectations of people from both sides of the Strait,"China's Xinhua news agency quoted the letter as saying.
Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung is in China allweek and on Wednesday met Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The Nationalists, who ruled all of China until 1949, hopeforging closer economic links with China will buoy Taiwan'seconomy, but they are in no hurry to unify politically.
(Editing by Nick Macfie and Jerry Norton)