Ma Ying-jeou, the mayor of Taipei City, speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York March 20, 2006. Ma Ying-jeou is the chairman of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Party and is a strong candidate for the "presidency" in 2008. [Reuters]

Relations with the mainland have been strained since February when pro-independence "president" Chen Shui-bian scrapped the National Unification Council (NUC), a dormant but politically significant body aimed at one day reuniting the mainland and Taiwan.

Ma, the mayor of Taipei, is chairman of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), or the Nationalist Party, which favours closer ties with the mainland. He called the abolition of the council "unnecessary and unwise."

Ma, 55, seen by many as the opposition's best bet for victory in the 2008 polls, has said he would reopen talks and aim to sign a peace agreement with the mainland if his party regained power in the next "presidential" election.

In comments to reporters after his speech, Ma said that in the meantime, talks should include ruling and opposition parties in the mainland and Taiwan as well as "governments".

"We in the KMT have already established a dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party. We also call upon the the mainland and all governments to talk. Otherwise I'm really afraid the situation will deteriorate," Ma said, referring to the "escalation of confrontation" caused by the NUC matter.

Beijing refuses to deal with Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) stands for an independent Taiwan identity.

The KMT, or Nationalists, once ruled all of China and fled to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949. The party enjoyed uninterrupted rule of the island until 2000, when it lost to Chen's DPP.