Taiwan leader rules out peace talks

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou ruled out any peace talks with China in the short term saying relations were too tenuous to consider military or political issues, the Washington Post reported. "At this stage we will only talk about economic and trade issues," Ma’s spokesman Wang Yu-chi said. Ma and Wang were responding to calls made by Premier Wen Jiabao for a new round of talks between Beijing and Taipei. Speaking on Thursday at the National People’s Congress, Wen said the mainland is "ready to hold talks on cross-strait political and military issues and create conditions for ending the state of hostility and concluding a peace agreement between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait." Beijing has considered Taiwan a renegade province since the Communist Party rose to power on the mainland in 1949. Since Ma took office in May, cross-strait cooperation has increased dramatically and the two sides have worked together to launch direct flights and postal service.