A spokeswoman of State Council Taiwan Affairs Office said Wednesday that the Chinese mainland is "open and positive" to see a possible visit of Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair.

Spokeswoman Fan Liqing said at a regular news briefing that the mainland had "an open and positive attitude" toward the visit of Hsu, a key Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) figure from Taiwan.

Fan also confirmed that the Taiwan Affairs Office had established a new bureau in charge of the exchanges and other issues between political parties across the Taiwan Straits.

"The new bureau is targeted at enhancing exchanges of political parties, increasing mutual understanding and trust, expanding common grounds and pushing forward peaceful development of the cross-Straits relations," Fan said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)