Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian has given his "blessing" to this week's landmark mainland visit by the island's major opposition leader, reversing earlier criticism of the trip, a senior Taiwan official said.

Chen had repeatedly accused Kuomintang (KMT) leader Lien Chan of being the mainland's promotional tool.

Another opposition leader, James Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP), has also accepted Beijing's invitation to visit the mainland.

Chen said on Saturday that the law does not bar the two party leaders from traveling to the mainland and that there was no problem with their going for sightseeing or tomb-sweeping. However, they were reportedly instructed not to sign any agreements with Beijing without Taipei's official approval.

Lien is due to begin his eight-day "peace journey" on Tuesday. He will travel to Nanjing, Beijing, his birthplace Xi'an and Shanghai. He is scheduled to meet President Hu Jintao, also the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, in Beijing on Friday.

Meanwhile, officials from the PFP and the Communist Party of China (CPC) have begun discussing the schedule for Soong's planned visit.

The nine-member PFP delegation, headed by Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng, is the party's first official delegation to the mainland. The members met with Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing on Sunday evening.

"We are also willing to fully exchange views about future exchanges and communication between our two parties," Chen told the PFP delegation.

(China Daily April 25, 2005)