China's Wen offers to resume dialogue with Taiwan

By Chris Buckley and Ralph Jennings

BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered on Tuesday to resume talks with self-ruled Taiwan, but his plea was ignored in a barrage of anti-China rhetoric ahead of Saturday's presidential election on the island.

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Wen told his news conference in Beijing at the end of the annual meeting of parliament that he wanted talks as soon as possible, but also warned Taiwan that passage of a contentious referendum on U.N. membership would disrupt ties.

"We hope to resume peace talks across the Straits as soon as possible under the one-China principle. Any questions can be addressed, including such major issues as ending the hostile state between the two sides," Wen said.

"Anyone who wants to separate Taiwan from the motherland will not succeed and is doomed to fail," he added.

The Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's China policy-making body, denounced Wen and said the crackdown in Tibet raised doubts about China's call for "peaceful development across the Strait".

"We would like to reiterate that we hope both sides can talk on equal status about issues concerned, but we cannot accept China's one-sided "one-China" prerequisite," the council said in a statement.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party also slammed China and said Beijing should avoid trying to interfere in Taiwan's election.