Taipei - Taipei is filling up potholes, removing the sensitive Taiwanese national flags from roadsides and holding police drills to prepare for next week's Taiwan-China dialogue.

Hundreds of policemen are combing each floor of the Grand Hotel, venue of the November 3-7 dialogue, and its surrounding hills to check for bombs and security gaps.

The island will mobilize 7,000 policemen to maintain order and assign 40 bodyguards to protect Chinese negotiator Chen Yunlin's safety. Chen will arrive on November 3 leading a 60-member delegation.

The dialogue will be the most important talks between Taiwan and China in a half century. President Ma Ying-jeou called it a milestone in Taiwan-China ties.

"It can minimize differences and maximize opportunities. It can expand consensus," he said in an interview with the cable TV channel TVBS.

Ma said that Taiwan and China will sign four pacts during the talks - on direct sea and postal links, expansion of weekend charter flights and the safety of China's food exports to Taiwan.

"With the the opening of direct sea links, Taiwan's fish and fruits can be quickly shipped to China and have a longer shelf life in Chinese markets. When Taiwan and China are busy doing business with each other, there won't be time for confrontation," Ma told TVBS.

While the talks will focus on expanding exchanges, the arrival of China's negotiator Chen and his scheduled meeting with President Ma will mark a breakthrough in ties between Taiwan and China, split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, according to analysts.

"The dialogue carries great symbolic meaning because it will be the first time a high-ranking Chinese envoy visits Taiwan. It is like China's sending envoy to Tibet in ancient times," political commentator Antonio Chiang told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Since 1949, China and Taiwan have existed as two separate countries, with the mainland, or the People's Republic of China, being recognized by 171 countries and Taiwan, the Republic of China, currently recognized by 23 countries.

With the thaw of tension, Taiwan and China held their first dialogue in Singapore in 1993, to launch a semi-official channel of contact in the absence of formal ties.

The two sides held a series of talks under the dialouge's framework to discuss the verification of legal documents, fishing quarrels and deportation of Chinese plane hijackers and job seekers.

China halted the talks in 1995 to retaliate against former president Lee Teng-hui's advocating Taiwan's sovereignty, resuming the dialogue only in June 2008 in Beijing, after Taiwan had picked a new president, Ma Ying-jeou from the China-friendly Chinese Nationalist Party.

Ma urged Taiwan and China to put aside political disputes and pursue economic cooperation. He also proposed a "diplomatic truce," meaning Taipei and Beijing should stop trying to win over each other's diplomatic allies.

Chinese President Hu Jintao welcomed Ma's peace overtures, and assured Taipei that so long as Taiwan des not seek independence, "anything can be discussed."

Taiwan and China resumed the dialogue in Beijing in June 2008, agreeing, among other things, to launch weekend charter flights on July 4 to let Chinese tour groups to visit Taiwan.

During the dialogue Taiwan and Chinese experts will also discuss how the two sides should cooperate in tackling the global financial crisis.

In a goodwill gesture ahead of the dialogue, China has allowed Taiwan to send former vice president Lien Chan to the APEC leaders' summit to be held November 22-23 in Lima, Peru. For the previous summits, Taiwan could only send an economic official as China sees Taiwan as is breakaway province and barred Taiwan's president from attending.

Brichard Bush, head of the Centre of Northeast Asian Policy Study at the US think tank Brookings Institution, said that allowing Lien to attend the APEC summit is a positive attitude shown by Beijing.

This will allow Lien and Chinese President Hu Jintao, who have met before, to continue their interaction and build mutual trust, the Central News Agency quoted Bush as saying.

Bush believed that with improvement of ties, China might allow President Ma to attend the APEC summit some day.

Although the majority of Taiwanese welcome the upcoming dialogue, the independence-leaning opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is firmly opposed to it.

Accusing Ma of moving too close to China and endangering Taiwan's interests, DPP insists that Taiwan and China are two separate countries and Beijing must accept Taiwan's sovereignty.

The DPP plans to hold protests during Chen Yunlin's visit and explode firecrackers at night near the Grand Hotel to disturb his sleep.

"China has deployed more than 1,000 missiles against Taiwan to intimidate Taiwan people. We want Chen Yunlin to know how it feels if one is threatened," Huang Jui-hsiung, a DPP Taipei councilor, told reporters.

Ma asked DPP members to refrain from violence and defended his overtures to China.

"I am only trying to sell Taiwan fruits to China," he said. (dpa)