Associated Press

Taipei, May 2:

Taiwan’s leader today invited rival China to talks under the principles of peace, democracy and parity. “The door for dialogue and negotiation is still open between thetwo sides,” President Chen Shui-bian said during a visit to the Marshall Islands.

“Under these principles the two sides can at any time begin to have contact, dialogue and negotiations,” he said.

Chen’s remarks came after the leader of Taiwan’s largest opposition party, Lien Chan, made a similar request at the end of a history-making tour of China.

Taiwan and China have been ruled separately since the Communists won a civil war and took over the mainland in 1949. Beijing insists that Taiwan — 160 km off the mainland’s coast — must unify with China eventually or face a punishing attack.

Chinese leaders have refused to talk to Chen until he agrees that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China. Chen hasn’t accepted, saying it would violate Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Earlier in the day, Lien visited Shanghai and said that Taiwan and China should thrash out a peace agreement. Lien, head of the Nationalist Party, planned to return to Taiwan tomorrow after an eight-day China trip that included a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Lien was the first leader of the opposition Nationalists — who once ruled the mainland — to visit China since the civil war.