Taipei- The majority of the people of Taiwan favor maintaining Taiwan's status quo with China and are satisfied with Taipei's policy seeking peace with Beijing, an opinion poll showed Thursday.

According to the poll of 1,094 people conducted by the government's Mainland Affairs Council, more than 80 per cent want to keep the status quo with China, the same percentage as in previous polls.

Regarding the new Taiwan government's China policy, 50.6 per cent of respondents said they have faith in the government's ability to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait, and 52.2 per cent said they thought Taipei-Beijing ties have improved since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on May 20.

When asked about Ma's proposal for a "diplomatic truce" with China, 67 per cent approved of it while 51 per cent said they thought Taiwan could promote its foreign relations and its ties with China simultaneously.

Taiwan and China have been split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Although tensions eased in the late 1980s when Taiwan launched people-to-people exchanges with China, bilateral ties were strained again during the 2000-2008 term of pro-independence president Chen Shui-bian.

Ma, a leader of the China-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party, and his administration have taken steps with Beijing to ease friction, including the launch of weekend charter flights and a visit by party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung to Beijing to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Ma has suggested Taiwan and China sign a peace pact but has also said that unification would not happen in the near future and maybe this generation of Taiwanese would not see it happen. (dpa)