TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S vice president-elect left for China on Friday for a forum that may include talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, in what would be the highest-level contact ever between Beijing and Taipei.

'I will use the Boao Forum to introduce the new blueprint for Taiwan's future economic development in the hope that Taiwan's economy can connect with the world,' Vincent Siew told reporters at the airport.

'We will also make more friends and exchange our views with others,' he said, before boarding a flight to Hong Kong where he will transit to the southern Chinese island of Hainan.

However he said earlier this week that he expected to meet with top Chinese leaders attending the forum.

Analysts say any meeting with Mr Hu would likely help smooth political tensions that have hamstrung relations despite the ever closer economic links tying the island to China.

Taiwan split from China in 1949 after a civil war but Beijing still claims sovereignty over the self-governing island, so any suggestion of an official meeting is highly sensitive.

Mr Siew has made it clear the forum would be a chance to show Taiwan's sincerity toward the mainland 'and make it the basis of our mutual trust.' He is a veteran of the Boao Forum in Hainan having attended five times in a private capacity as chairman of a non-profit organisation, and has met Mr Hu there in the past.

However any meeting now takes on extreme significance, as Mr Siew was Ma Ying Jeou's running mate when the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang candidate won Taiwan's presidential election last month.

Mr Ma has vowed to improve relations with China, increase trade, tourism and transport links, and work on a peace treaty to end hostilities.

Political relations between China and Taiwan deteriorated during the eight years the island has been ruled by the pro-independence party.

Economically, however, China has become Taiwan's number one export market and its biggest trading partner. Two-way trade last year reached a record US$102 billion.