Taipei  - Taiwan's ex-president Lien Chan and Chinese President Hu Jintao, in Peru for the upcoming APEC summit, will meet Friday amid signs of improved ties between Taiwan and China, according to a TV report.

Lien and Hu will meet at the Delfines Hotel in Lima, where Hu is staying, at 10:45 am Friday (1545 GMT), cable TV channel TVBS reported, quoting an unnamed Chinese source as confirming the meeting.

The Lien-Hu meeting will be open to the press, TVBS said.

Although Lien has met Hu in Beijing four times since 2005, the Lien-Hu meeting Friday will be closely watched by the world media as Lien is the highest-level Taiwan delegate to the APEC summit since the meeting was launched in 1993.

China has barred Taiwan's president from the summit, allowing Taipei to send only an economic official to the meeting as Beijing still regards Taiwan as China's breakaway province awaiting unification with the motherland.

But as Taipei-Beijing ties are fast improving since the May 20 inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou, China approved Taiwan's sending Lien Chan to the November 22-23 APEC summit. (dpa)