Taipei - Taiwan's former vice premier Liu Chao-shiuan has been widely tipped to head the new cabinet to be formed in May following the victory of the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), in the March presidential poll, local media reported Wednesday.

Liu, a former vice premier with the KMT government which ruled Taiwan from 1949 to 2000, made headlines of Taiwanese news media after he was reported to have accepted an offer by president-elect Ma Ying-jeou to serve as premier.

Liu declined to confirm or deny the reports, but he told the state-funded Central News Agency that the "final decision on this matter will be made and announced by president-elect Ma."

Cable news channel TVBS Wednesday said Ma has approached Liu at least three times to offer him the job, and Liu finally agreed to take the offer.

A technocrat with a doctorate degree in chemistry at the University of Toronto in Canada, Liu returned to the academic circle after the KMT lost power to the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) during the presidential election in 2000.

The DPP remained as the governing party by once again winning the 2004 presidential election. It was finally defeated by the KMT's Ma in the March 22 presidential poll. Ma will be inaugurated on May 20 to form a new government.

Liu had served as chairman of the National Science Council and transport minister before becoming vice premier. He stepped down as vice premier when the KMT lost power to the DPP in 2000.