TAIPEI - TAIWAN presidential candidate Ma Ying Jeou of the China-friendly Nationalist Party (KMT) holds a big lead over rival Frank Hsieh, who favours a harder line towards Beijing, three polls published on Monday suggest.

Taiwan, recognised by just 23 countries and viewed by China as a breakaway province that must be brought back to the fold, votes for a new president on March 22.

Mr Ma, a former Taipei mayor who has pledged to relax Taiwan-China investment rules to jumpstart the local economy if elected, has 49 to 54 per cent of voter support, according to three media polls, one each in the Chinese-language China Times and United Daily and one by local TV news station TVBS.

Other respondents were undecided.

China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Taiwan media-driven election opinion polls are often wide of the mark.

'There are still 12 days left, and to say Mr Hsieh is still behind Mr Ma is believable, but that the gap being so big is something I'm not so sure about,' said George Hou, a mass communications lecturer at I-Shou University in Taiwan.

A Hsieh campaign spokesman said he expected the election day results to differ from those reported by the polls.

China is a top issue for this presidential election, not least because of outgoing President Chen Shui bian's decision to hold a simultaneous referendum on whether to seek UN membership under the name 'Taiwan'.

Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the UN bid is doomed because China, recognised by 170 countries, wields a veto as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. -- REUTERS