Taipei - Taiwan is to reopen to the public this weekend the mausoleums of the late Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), leader, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, an official announced Thursday.

The announcement came after the China-friendly KMT returned to power after its victory in the March presidential election, ending eight years of rule by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The mausoleums would reopen Saturday, Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun, a KMT politician, said during a county council meeting.

Chu said since the mausoleums, located in Taoyuan outside Taipei, were closed on December 24, many residents had demanded their reopening so that they could pay respects to the late KMT leaders.

Also, many tourists, including those from China, have been disappointed to find that the two memorials were shut down, he said.

Before their closure, the mausoleums were a tourist attraction that had helped Taoyuan county net millions of tourist dollars.

Chu said the reopening would attract Chinese tourists, who will be allowed to visit Taiwan from July 4 under a plan by the KMT government.

The mausoleums have been known as a must-go attraction for Chinese visitors curious about the two late leaders, whose KMT government ruled China for several decades before the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

The mausoleums were ordered shut by then-President Chen Shui-bian of the DPP, who favoured independence for the self-governing island and launched an islandwide campaign to erase Chiang Kai-shek's legacy and cut Taiwan's historic links with China.

Chiangs Kai-shek's KMT government ruled Taiwan with an iron fist after losing control of China to the Communists and fleeing across the Taiwan Strait.

Chiang Kai-shek died in 1975 and was succeeded by his son, who died in 1988.

The mausoleum was closed on the grounds that Chiang Kai-shek was responsible for sending troops to suppress an uprising in Taiwan in 1947. Tens of thousands of locals were killed two years before the KMT fled to Taiwan.

The victory of KMT President Ma Ying-jeou, however, has put the anti-Chiang Kai-shek campaign on hold. (dpa)