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TAIPEI : Taiwan's presidential rivals pledged Friday to repair relations with big neighbour China as they stumped across the island in a hectic election-eve scramble for votes.
Opposition frontrunner Ma Ying-jeou and ruling party chief Frank Hsieh put the focus back on Beijing after nearly a week bashing China over its military crackdown in Tibet.
Hsieh, whose Democratic Progressive Party favours independence, promised to resume talks with Beijing if he is elected Saturday.
The Kuomintang's Ma, for his part, warned of "dirty tricks" by Hsieh's party as he seeks to shore up a lead experts say has narrowed because of the Tibet unrest.
The violence has allowed Hsieh to attack Ma's calls for a peace treaty and "common market" with Beijing as paving the way to eventual reunification with the mainland.
Still, with voters expected to focus on economic woes and the prospect of better ties, Hsieh vowed to improve on the outgoing administration, which has antagonised China with its rhetoric.
"I will resume dialogue, including with China," Hsieh pledged. "I will open up, and I will also defend Taiwan's sovereignty.
"In the past the DPP was criticised for not opening up, but I will be more compromising, I will do better. That's my pledge."
Relations with China have been battered under President Chen Shui-bian, who has repeatedly irked Beijing with his rhetoric on Taiwan nationhood.
Ma, who this week spoke of a possible Olympic boycott if China's crackdown worsened, said Friday he did not want to "push the issue to the extreme."
"I would adopt a flexible manner... to improve cross-Strait ties after the election," he told a local radio station.
The stock market closed up 2.25 percent Friday -- 4.46 percent up over the week -- on the prospect of better ties as well as Wall Street gains, dealers said.
Since late January the island's bench index has risen more than 12 percent, outperforming Wall Street and regional markets.
Both candidates want to open direct tourism and transport links which have been largely cut off since Taiwan split from the mainland in 1949.
Ma also wants to tap into the vast mainland market for Taiwanese goods and allow Chinese investors to pump funds into the economy back here.
Hsieh, however, is more cautious on economic cooperation, warning Ma's plan could leave Taiwan vulnerable to being swallowed up.
Ma enjoyed a 20-point lead in the last opinion poll 12 days ago, before a pre-election ban on surveys took effect, but that was before the Tibet unrest focused attention on Taiwan's own future.
The self-ruled island is still claimed by China, and Hsieh argues that any Ma-led administration would make reunification more likely.
Andrew Yang, an analyst at National Sun Yat-sen University in the southern city of Kaohsiung, said Tibet was only a marginal issue, with the economy the main concern.
"After all, Taiwan is Taiwan and Tibet is Tibet.... China's military threat to Taiwan has been there for decades," he told AFP.
"Lots of people expect a more constructive development in cross-strait ties under a new presidency."
Meanwhile, Ma accused Hsieh's party of trying to smear him by alleging he had foreign residency in the United States and may not be loyal to Taiwan.
"Taiwan must adopt reform, and only through reform can Taiwan be changed. Taiwan must open up to the world and must not keep shutting itself out of the world," he said.
Security has been beefed up for the vote, with 68,000 officers on the beat and a protective cordon around the candidates and polling stations.
Saturday's poll is also being closely watched by the United States, where analysts and former officials said they were hoping for a more moderate stance on China.
Chen has angered both nations by a decision to hold referendums on joining the United Nations at the same time as the election, which Washington sees as needlessly provocative.
- AFP/so/ir
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