The two made the pledge yesterday at their fourth meeting when Hu hosted a banquet in Lien's honor.

Lien said that based on the commitments he and Hu made to the people, the two sides will march forward in the direction of pursuing peace and closer cooperation in the future.

Hu said the people on both sides of the strait now anticipate a new chapter in the relations after the situation in Taiwan has undergone dramatic changes.

He expressed the hope that both political parties will seize the new opportunities and environment to continue pushing for closer ties and peaceful developments.

What Hu described as the new situation in Taiwan meant the imminent change of administration on the island as President-elect Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT will soon assume presidency on May 20.

Ma advocates more active interchanges and better business ties with the mainland, including regular direct flights, more Chinese tourists and normalized economic cooperation relationship.

Hu just met Vice President-elect Vincent Siew from Taiwan when both attended a regional economic forum held in China's southern Hainan Province earlier this month. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the historic Lien-Hu meeting in Beijing in 2005 when the two first met after decades of confrontations between Taiwan and China.

Like at their first encounter, Lien wore a red (the color of the Chinese Communist Party), while Hu chose a blue tie (the color of the KMT).

The venue for the meeting and banquet was the same place where then Taiwan's top negotiator Koo Chen-fu, chairman of the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Daohan, head of Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATs), for the first time on the Chinese soil.

Earlier in the day, Lien attended a ceremony marking the unveiling of an enlarged bronze sculpture by Taiwanese artist Yang Ying-feng (aka Yuyu Yang) beside the National Stadium, commonly known as the "Bird Nest," a major venue for the Beijing Olympic Games.

The sculpture was given to Hu by Lien during a 2006 visit to China. Hu proposed to enlarge the art work for public display to signify the peace and friendship between Taiwan and China.

According to Lien, Yang was born in Yilan County in northern Taiwan but studied at a middle school and the Catholic Fu Jen University in Beijing.

Members on the delegation led by Lien included Cabinet Minister-designate Tsai Hsun-hsiung in the incoming KMT government, former Vice Premier Hsu Li-teh, KMT Vice Chairman Lin Feng-cheng.

Taiwan business and industry leaders who also attended the meeting with Hu included Jeffrey L.S. Koo, chairman of the Chinatrust Group; Terry Guo, chairman of the Hon Hai Group; Yin Yen-liang, chairman of the Ruentex Group; and Winston Wang, a son of Formosa Plastics Group founder Wang Yung-ching.

This was the fourth visit to the mainland by Lien, born in China to a Taiwanese father who married a mainland Chinese women when he spent many years in China during his youth.

Lien is likely to visit Beijing again soon at a lunch hosted by Beijing mayor and the head of the China Olympic Games Committee, he and his wife were invited to attend the Summer Olympic Games opening in Beijing in August.