China and Taiwan hold landmark talks

Officials from arch rivals China and Taiwan are meeting for the first time in nearly a decade.

China and Taiwan will talk about starting direct flights, banned since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island at the close of the civil war in 1949, and opening the doors to Chinese tourists.

But both sides are ignoring trickier subjects in favour of first solving more practical matters.

So any mention of a peace treaty or of the missiles Taiwan says China has aimed at it are off the agenda.

Taiwan's top negotiator PK Chiang will meet his Chinese counterpart, Chen Yunlin, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, which is a popular venue for top-level negotiations and meetings.

Mr Chiang's 19-member team is scheduled to sign an agreement on Friday about flights and tourists.

Mr Chiang said: "Although the schedule sounds simple, the task is very heavy and the significance is also quite heavy.

"These meeting topics are a starting point, which affects the development of relations between the two sides."

China and Taiwan last spoke formally in 1999, before former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui enraged Beijing by describing ties as "a special state-to-state relationship".

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island.

Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary. But in a bid to avoid diplomatic rows in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August, China is expected to take a conciliatory line this week.

There are currently no direct flights between the two rivals except on major holidays, meaning the hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese who live and work in China have to make time-consuming flights via Hong Kong, Macau or other third territories.

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