A mainland official has urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan Province to give up its party charter featured with a pro-independence stance.

"If DPP reaches this point, I believe there is no obstacle for our exchanges with DPP," said Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Friday, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

In the past few years, a number of DPP members have visited the mainland in their own names, according to the official. The southwestern city of Chongqing has invited mayors of some Taiwan cities, some of them are DPP members, to attend a Asia-Pacific mayors' summit to be convened in the city this October, Chen noted.

He quoted Hu Jintao, Chinese president and general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, as saying, on March 4, 2005, that the mainland side would like to hold talks with anyone and any party who recognize the One-China Principle and a 1992 consensus between the Taiwan Straits.

Chen reiterated the mainland's consistent policy that whoever rules Taiwan should pay priority to the interests of Taiwan people, adding that the majority of Taiwan people oppose "Taiwan independence" and want a peaceful and stable development of the cross-straits relations.

The mainland will open wider to correspondents from Taiwan, Chen said, in a comment of rumors that the mainland may take a countermeasure against the Taiwan Authorities for its recent decision to stop the assignments of reporters by mainland's Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily.

According to the official, the mainland opened to Taiwan media in 1988 and so far, over 10,000 Taiwan reporters have visited the mainland. Currently, 12 Taiwan-based media have opened offices in mainland cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.

Taiwan had not permitted the visits of mainland reporters until the end of 2000, and meanwhile, the Taiwan Authorities have always tried to restrict the cross-straits exchanges on news coverage, Chen said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 16, 2005)