Maintaining stability across the Taiwan Straits will be Chinese people's largest contribution to world peace, said Chairman James CY Soong of People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan in his valediction Friday morning as he concluded a historic nine-day trip to the mainland.

The PFP leader said that only peace could bring happiness to the people, and pledged to bring the "mainland compatriots' goodwill and many, many experiences" back to Taiwan.

Soong also thanked Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, for having invited him, calling Hu a courageous leader with "honest and objective viewpoints."

"His crucial decision concerning the future development of cross-Straits relations has set forth a historic milestone in cross-Straits ties," Soong commented on his CPC counterpart, adding that the mainland had demonstrated its sincerity in pooling together wisdom to erase the past misunderstanding.

No problem will be left unsolved in the one-China framework, said Soong, vowing to try his utmost to materialize the proposals jointly launched by the CPC and PFP during his visit.

He also said the two parties would exchange views on important issues on a regular or irregular basis as a party-to-party dialogue mechanism had been established as a result of the PFP's landmark mainland mission.

The PFP delegation left Beijing Friday morning for Taiwan, via Hong Kong. They had visited Xi'an, Nanjing, Shanghai, Changsha and Beijing since their arrival in the mainland on May 5.

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2005)