Lee said it remains Singapore's position that Singapore-Taiwan relations should not develop faster than Taiwan's ties with China.

"We cannot go faster than your relations with the mainland. That's the position. Once you improve your relations with the mainland, that's no problem," Lee said.

Lee was responding to an offer by President-elect Ma Ying-jeou for Taiwan to resume FTA talks with Singapore under a flexible name.

Pointing to the delicate nature of cross-Taiwan Strait relations, Lee recalled that Beijing suspended all government-to-government negotiations with Singapore after the Taiwanese media played up a visit to Taiwan by then-Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in July 2004.

As a consequence, Singapore's FTA with China has so far not been signed, while New Zealand, which started FTA talks with China after Singapore, has concluded the agreement, Lee said.

"Beijing uses its economic and political clout to counteract what it sees as against its interests," Lee observed.

According to Lee, Singapore and Taiwan can step up cooperation in trade, investment and tourism "so long as you (Taiwan) maintain stable and friendly relations with China."

"Do not bring any politics into the Taiwan-Singapore relationship. Singapore has always stood by its one-China policy, from the 1970s when the R.O.C. had Chiang Ching-kuo as president," he stressed.

Asked if he has any plans to visit Taiwan in the near future, Lee said such visits will only be possible if cross-strait relations become friendly and cooperative again and if there is no media publicity of his visits, as in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s when he frequently visited Taiwan.

"But when such visits are used by Taiwan's media to provoke Beijing, they set back Taiwan-Singapore interactions," Lee said. "If you return to the earlier practice of no publicity, our interaction will be quiet but more productive," he added.

On the question of whether there is a way for Taiwan to negotiate a trade agreement with or participate in the regional integration process of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Lee dismissed the idea as unlikely.

Lee explained that an ASEAN-Taiwan agreement is not easy because ASEAN functions on consensus and there are several ASEAN members that maintain strong ties with China.

"They will not want to displease China," he said.

Also, it is unlikely that Taiwan will be included in the ASEAN dialogues, which discuss political and security affairs as well as economic matters, because there will be no consensus on the issue among the 10 ASEAN members, Lee said.

Instead, Lee suggested that Taiwan use its status in the World Trade Organization as a territory to negotiate trade and investment agreements with as many of the ASEAN countries as possible.

Lee, 85, was Singapore's first prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and has remained one of the most influential politicians in Singapore since stepping down from the post.

Lee served as senior minister from 1990 to 2004 under the administration of Singapore's second prime minister, Goh Chok Tong. The post of minister mentor was specially created under Lee's son, Lee Hsien Loong, who became the nation's third prime minister in August 2004.