TAIPEI - THREE official groups from China have cancelled plans to visit Taiwan because of violent political protests last week directed against Beijing's top negotiator to the island, the local ruling party said on Monday.

Safety fears prompted the groups to call off trips to Taiwan, said Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Chen Shu-jung.

'There are groups from China that have cancelled,' said Ms Chen, whose party has kept close contact with China's Communist Party over the past three years.

China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

In a sign of the improving relations since China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May, Beijing's top negotiator, Mr Chen Yunlin, visited the island last week, marking the highest-level encounter of its kind in Taipei in 60 years.

But thousands protested throughout Mr Chen's Nov 3-7 trip, and small groups threw objects at police and tried to enter hotels where Mr Chen was staying or holding meetings.

Among the cancellations is a visit planned for Tuesday by a vice-mayor of Chongqing, a giant municipality in southwest China, Taiwan's United Daily News said. China's central government rejected the trip, the paper said. -- REUTERS