Singapore  - China is willing to start negotiations with Taiwan on cross-strait trade before the end of the year, Chinese President Hu Jintao said Saturday in a meeting with top Taiwan official Lien Chan in Singapore.

"We should continue to follow the approaches of putting aside difficult issues, and making economic issues the priority in advancing the cross-strait consultation," China's official news agency Xinhua quoted Hu as saying.

Both sides should "strive to launch the consultation process for a cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement within this year," Hu added.

Hu and Lien met on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Singapore. The meeting lasted "nearly one hour," a Taiwan delegate said.

On Friday, Lien had pushed for early negotiations with China on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, saying Taiwan hoped to wrap up the deal next year.

So far, Taiwan and China have only been holding informal talks on the proposed agreement to permit the free flow of products, services and capital between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Lien, a former vice-president, was named by President Ma Ying-jeou as his proxy for the informal summit of the 21 APEC leaders in Singapore which kicked off with a lunch on Saturday.

Taiwan has been unable to send any of its presidents to the APEC summit since 1993 due to the opposition of China, which regards the island as a renegade province, rather than a nation. (dpa)