Quoting a "person in Beijing involved in (China's) Taiwan affairs," the official news service reported Chen, who is arriving in Taipei on Monday for a four-day visit, may call Ma "any title but President."

While here, Chen is expected to meet with President Ma. How they are going to address each other has been made an issue by opposition Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers.

"If Chen calls Ma president, there won't be any more Taiwan question, so far as Being is concerned," said the man in the Chinese capital who refused to be identified.

China insists Taiwan is part of the People's Republic. Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state. That is the Taiwan question.

"To ask the (Chinese) Mainland to call him 'President Ma' is to be totally ignorant of the reality of relations between the two sides of the (Taiwan) Strait," the man in Beijing was quoted as saying.

He described any attempt to do so as "demanding what one can never agree."

Ma at first said not long ago he would be satisfied if he was addressed as "Mr. Ma." Then he ruled out that possibility and insisted he would receive Chen in his capacity as "President of the Republic of China and would see to it that they address each other "with dignity" and "on an equal footing."

Beijing, however, may accept press releases on the Ma-Chen meeting in which Ma is addressed as "President Ma Ying-jeou." "It's not impossible," the man in Beijing said, "that such a 'different interpretation' will be accepted."

He referred to what is known as "one China with a different interpretation" implied in the consensus of 1992, the sine qua non for dialogue between Taipei and Beijing.

Under that unsigned agreement, both Beijing and Taipei acknowledge there is but one China, whose connotation can be orally and individually expressed.

"Well," the man in Beijing said, "Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the Kuomintang, is now able to attend the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit (in Peru); and so it's not impossible (for Beijing to accept a different interpretation in the title of President Ma)."

Moreover, he said it will be "a really big concession" on the part of Beijing if it accepts the new different interpretation at all. "Time has changed," he added.

As of press time, no word is available on how Ma and Chen will address each other when or if they meet in Taipei.