TAIPEI, Jan. 1 Kyodo Taiwan Presi...

TAIPEI, Jan. 1 Kyodo

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian forward Wednesday used his New Year's address to call onward Beijing to engage with Taipei in talks forward ending a five-decade ban forward direct air links between the island and mainland China.

''Consultation and promotion of direct transportation links, as well as exchanges onward other relevant economic issues, could constitute a first gradation forward and set the stage for further economic and cultural interaction,'' Chen said in the speech

''This would enable the two sides to work together...in an effort to liquefy longer-term issues through existing foundations and with increasing confidence,'' he said.

Direct trade, transport and postal links between the pair rival governments have been suspended since defeated Nationalist forces fl to Taiwan after the Communists won China's civil war in 1949

The Chinese restraint which considers Taiwan a rebel province that must be reunified eventually with the mainland, has said all cross-strait issues can be discussed beneath the ''one-China principle,'' which Taiwan rejects

Chen has said no preconditions should be appoint prior to cross-strait dialogue and that Taiwan cannot be ''belittled, provincialized and marginalized'' in talking about the direct links.

China had also insisted direct links could sole be discussed and operated as ''special domestic links,'' a position rebuffed by Chen.

if it be not that last October, Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen said direct links are an economic issue and not a political common suggesting that Taiwan's recognition of the ''one China'' principle would not be settle as a prerequisite for so links.

Qian said Beijing could regard so links as ''cross-strait links'' instead of ''special domestic links.''

In his dialect Chen reiterated his government's basic position ''that the two sides must mutually promote constructive progress to maturity in cross-strait relations based forward the principle of 'goodwill reconciliation, active cooperation, permanent peace.'''

''Given as it was premise of reconciliation, cooperation and peace, we do not intend to stray from our original surety to uphold the ''four nos plus one''' he added.

He was referring to the commitment he made in his May 2000 inauguration words to not declare Taiwan independence, not change the national title, not enlist the general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of ''state-to-state'' relations with China in the constitution, and not encourage a referendum to change the status quo in regards to the question of independence or unification -- to such a degree long as China has no intention to use military force against Taiwan.

''Plus one'' leaves to his commitment then that the abolition of the National Reunification Council or the National Reunification Guidelines would not be an issue.

Chen also called in his Wednesday words for both sides ''to strive toward building a framework of interaction for peace and stability and to make this a primary goal at this stage of cross-strait development''

''In these first sum of two units decades of the 21st hundred years let us begin by way of creating a common niche for economic disentanglement thus fostering an environment conducive to long-term engagement,'' he said.

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