The chairman of the People First Party in Taiwan, James Soong, will arrive on the mainland tomorrow to begin a nine-day tour.

Soong's tour follows hard on the heels of the visit by Chinese Kuomintang Party Chairman Lien Chan and his delegation, who returned to Taipei yesterday.

Wang Zaixi, spokesman for the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, confirmed yesterday that Soong would meet Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, in Beijing.

Soong will lead a PFP delegation to the mainland cities of Xi'an, Nanjing, Shanghai, Changsha and Beijing.

The visit will end on May 13.

Wang said the mainland would like to contact and communicate with all Taiwan political parties, organizations and individuals who uphold the "1992 Consensus," oppose "Taiwan independence" and support development of cross-strait relations.

He said the absence of formal party-to-party relations between the CPC and the Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan's ruling party headed by Chen Shui-bian, lies in the DPP guideline calling for "Taiwan independence."

"We welcome the DPP to visit the mainland and conduct talks on problems of mutual concern as long as it admits the '1992 Consensus,' abandons the pro-independence platform and stops secessionist activities," Wang said.

He said middle and lower-level DPP members are welcome to visit the mainland as assuming appropriate status.

At a press conference in Beijing, Wang said the mainland is ready to talk about everything, even its "missile" issue, with Taiwan, but only under the one-China principle.

The possibility to talk about the issue has been underscored by the press communique issued last week by the CPC and the KMT during Lien's visit.

Under the one-China principle, the two sides can take the priority to discuss the ending of hostility across the Taiwan Strait, the communique says.

On the issues of military mutual trust across the strait and Taiwan's purchase of foreign weapons, Wang said the mainland has been persistent in its stance since the 1980s that the Taiwan issue should be resolved peacefully through consultation under the one-China principle.

Thus the mainland is "not in favor of the massive-scale purchase of advanced weaponry by Taiwan, because it is detrimental to the peaceful reunification and economic development of Taiwan," he said.

Wang said that the majority of Taiwan compatriots are against Taiwan authorities' motion in 2004 to purchase more than US$19 billion of weapons from the United States.

He also called on Taiwan authorities' cooperation in facilitating a pair of giant pandas to settle in Taiwan.

Commenting on the proposal made by Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, a KMT vice chairman, concerning presenting macaques in return to the mainland, Wang said "the mainland compatriots will be very pleased and welcome the primates."