Taipei - Semi-official talks between Taiwan and China in Beijing next week will see the two sides signing pacts on opening weekend charter flights and allowing mainland tourists to visit Taiwan.

Talks on other, more sensitive issues, such as pacts for peace and the protection of Taiwan investors, China's removal of missiles facing Taiwan and China allowing Taiwan to join international organizations, are expected to follow.

The dialogue in Beijing from June 11-14, which follows decades of tension fuelled by successive Taiwan presidents seeking independence for Taiwan, is aimed at paving the way for lasting peace.

"The re-opening of the dialogue has broken the stalement across the Taiwan Strait, but there are many problems and they must be solved one by one," Wu Han, associate professor at Kun Shan University, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Economic issues can be solved first. Political and military issues will be solved only after both sides have reached a certain degree of understanding," he said.

Taiwan and China, split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, held their first dialogue in Singapore in 1993, conducting a series of talks under the dialogue's framework.

Beijing halted the dialogue in 1998 due to then Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui's advocating Taiwan independence. Cross-strait ties remained frozen during the 2000-2008 term of Chen, also blasted by China as a separatist.

Tension began to thaw after Ma Ying-jeou, from the pro-China Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), won the March 22 presidential election, pledging to seek peace with China and revive Taiwan's economy.

While promising not to seek independence during his term, Ma said he hoped to open weekend charter flights and allow Chinese tourists visit Taiwan. The flights are to be expanded to daily charter flights and eventually to regular flights.

China reacted by inviting KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung to visit Beijing and meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao. In the meeting on May 28, Hu gave the go-ahead for the Beijing-Taipei dialogue to resume. He also assured Wu that as long as Taiwan considers itself part of China, anything - including allowing Taiwan the "international space" it desires - can be discussed.

Ma appears pleased with the development, though aware of the difficulties against the backdrop of the Taiwan-China dispute, where Taiwan insists it is a sovereign country while China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province - one it is ready to recover by force if Taipei seeks independence.

"The iceberg between Taiwan and China is huge and takes a long time to melt. So we must be patient," Ma said.

Taiwan is seeking to rejoin the United Nations and other international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), and wants to preserve its diplomatic ties with its 23 allies.

Ma, in his inauguration speech, proposed a diplomatic truce in order to ease tension. Taipei and Beijing, he suggested, should stop trying to win over each other's allies and China should stop blocking Taiwan's membership of international organizations.

When KMT Chairman Wu met Hu, he raised this proposal.

"We can understand Taiwan people's feelings. As for Taiwan's request for 'international space,' like entry into WHO, it can be discussed in the cross-strait dialogue," Hu told Wu.

The warm-up of ties between Taipei and Beijing has caused concern among Taiwan natives' pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which fears Ma is falling into China's trap.

"I am glad to see the warm-up of ties, but I have the feeling that since March 22 (Ma's election), Taiwan's sovereignty has been gradually eroded," Annette Lu, former Taiwan vice president, member of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and staunch advocate of Taiwan independence, said in a television interview.

She said she fears that once Taiwan is hooked by China's sweeteners and its economy is completely reliant on China, Beijing will tighten the noose and bring Taiwan into its fold. (dpa)