Taipei- Taiwan's top negotiator with China suggested Monday that Taiwan and China should sign an economic cooperation pact and a peace pact to promote peace in the Taiwan Strait.

Chiang Ping-kun, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), made the proposal while reporting Taiwan-China ties at the monthly meeting of the Presidential Office.

Taiwan-China ties have moved from the 1949-1987 period of confrontation to the 1988-2008 period of economic exchanges, the report said.

China has become the top destination for Taiwanese investment, which is 69 billion US dollars, or 55 per cent of Taiwan's total overseas investment.

China has also become Taiwan's top trading partner, as 40.7 per cent of Taiwan's foreign trade in 2007 was with China and Hong Kong, much higher than the 13 per cent with the US, Taiwan's No 2 export market.

The report said that confrontation with China has brought nothing good to Taiwan, but has deepened Taiwan's international isolation and economic marginalization.

Looking toward the future, the report said, leaders of Taiwan and China should seize the historic opportunity to resolve confrontation and promote peace.

The report suggested the two sides hold economic and peace forums to reach the consensus and work on the draft comprehensive economic cooperation agreement
(CECA) and cross-strait peace agreement.

When the time is ripe, Taiwan and China each can form taskforces to prepare for the signing of CECA and the cross-strait peace agreement, the report said.

When President Ma Yin-jeou from the China-friendly KMT party was inaugurated on May 20, he said Taiwan was willing to develop peace with China and wanted to hold talks with China on signing a peace pact with Beijing.

China has welcomed Ma's peace initiatives and is pushing for greated exchanges with Taiwan, but China's Taiwan watchers said it is too early to talks about signing a peace pact as conditions are not ripe yet.

Ma himself does not want to sign the peace pact now, as he has said that Taiwan cannot discuss the peace pact with Beijing unless Beijing has removed more than 1,000 missiles targeting Tiawan. (dpa)