Exchanges between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) will play an important role in the relations across the Taiwan Strait, according to visiting KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung.

The platform between the KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party, and CPC is vital to peaceful development across the strait and will not collide with the talks between the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), Wu told a press conference here on Wednesday. "The two channels will help and benefit each other."

The two parties will talk and decide within one or two months on whether to hold an inter-party forum in Taipei, he said.

The cross-strait relation had been tense and even worse for some time and now the two sides shall seize the new chance and work together to put it on the track of peace and stability, he said.

The two sides have reached a common understanding to build up trust and shelve differences, he said. "We should not stagnate things that will benefit people from both sides for the sake of some problems that might not be solved shortly."

"We could be sure that there will be no wars across the strait with joint efforts from the both sides."

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Hu Jintao met with Wu on Wednesday afternoon and the two agreed to resume the ARATS-SEF dialogue as early as possible.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2008)