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TAIPEI: Weekend talks between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan's vice president-elect Vincent Siew have started to "thaw the ice" in their ties, the island's incoming president Ma Ying-jeou said Monday.
The landmark meeting on Saturday in Hainan, southern China, on the sidelines of the regional Boao Forum "has started to thaw the ice across the strait," Ma told reporters.
Ma, who takes office on May 20, said he was encouraged by the Hu-Siew meeting, which was the highest-level contact between the two sides since they split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.
"We'll push for the reopening of cross-strait negotiations after May 20," said the incoming president, of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party.
"Thanks to the Boao meeting, some of the barriers for the resumption of talks have been removed," he said.
Hu and Siew exchanged views on cross-strait economic relations in a "natural, friendly and constructive atmosphere," Ma said.
Ma said he would name KMT vice chairman Chiang Pin-kung as Taiwan's chief negotiator in dealing with China.
Chiang will head the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), which is in charge of civilian exchanges between the island and the mainland.
"SEF will be responsible for handling cross-strait relations, with the authorisation of the Mainland Affairs Council," Ma said, referring to Taiwan's top China policy decision-making body.
Beijing unilaterally called off rapprochement talks in 1995 to protest the controversial US visit by the island's then president Lee Teng-hui, claiming it was part of his efforts to promote independence.
Ma, who won the March presidential election in a landslide, will succeed outgoing President Chen Shui-bian, who angered Beijing with his pro-independence rhetoric. - AFP/ac
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