Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou said Monday he will not rule out meeting mainland leaders such as Communist Party of China chief Hu Jintao.

"I won't exclude that possibility, but there's no timetable for that yet," Ma said when asked if he would meet Hu. "At the moment, we have our hands full with economic issues."

Ma, 59, became chairman of the ruling Kuomintang over the weekend.

Hu previously met Ma's two predecessors, Lien Chan and Wu Poh-hsiung, a major sign of closer ties across the Taiwan Straits.

Analysts said the most appropriate time could be 2012 or 2013, if Ma gets re-elected.

"There is a lot of uncertainty as to when leaders on both sides can meet. I would say the best time is in 2012 if Ma gets re-elected," said Lin Cheng-yi, research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American Studies.

"It looks like cross-Straits relations are the most important of Ma policies," Lin said.

Despite political differences, commercial ties have flourished. The mainland is Taiwan's largest trading partner with two-way trade worth more than US$130 billion, while Taiwan businesses have poured more than $100 billion into the mainland.

Taiwan's economy has begun depending so much on the mainland that some Taiwan politicians and analysts worry the mainland could take over the island through economic means.

Ma said the island needs to diversify its exports to stay competitive and he forecast 4 percent economic growth next year. He also said the island expects to sign a deal similar to a free trade agreement with the mainland next year that would cut tariffs.

Ma hopes more of the exports to the mainland will be sold in the domestic market, instead of being re-exported to economies such as the United States and Europe, which have been harder hit by the steep global downturn.

"It's not possible for us to change the economy based on exports, but we could diversify the export market, not focusing entirely on the United States or Europe," Ma said.

He said Taiwan will no longer treat the mainland as a factory, but rather as a market.

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