Taiwan Vice-President Lien Chan returned yesterday from a round of holiday diplomacy in Singapore saying the sides agreed Taipei and Beijing should end their cold war - but he dismissed using Singapore as a go-between. Without mentioning any names, Mr Lien said that Singapore's leaders agreed with him that Taiwan and the mainland should resume long-postponed talks. 'Resumption of cross-strait negotiations should not carry any pre-condition. This is something that everyone agrees with,' said Mr Lien. 'Our Singaporean friends think our viewpoint is very accurate and they urge us to aggressively face the Taiwan-China problem.' Mr Lien's comments were the first by either Taipei or Singapore about a trip which included four days of golf and meals with Singapore's leaders and which prompted protests from Beijing. Su Chi, Mr Lien's chief spokesman, confirmed the Vice-President had met Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew and President Ong Teng Cheong. But Mr Lien declined to reveal his itinerary in Singapore. 'We talked a great deal about cross-strait relations,' he said when asked if Singapore was seeking to resume its role as middle-man between Taipei and Beijing. 'But as Chinese, we [Taiwanese] don't need to ask third parties to intervene.' Mr Lien said he told his Singaporean hosts Taiwan was not interested in seeking independence, since 'the Republic of China is already an independent state'. Beijing was 'unqualified' to seek immediate reunification with Taiwan because it had yet to develop freedom, a democratic system of government and an equitable distribution of wealth, Mr Lien said. He urged the mainland 'not to waste time' and to hurry up and resume negotiations this year. On the recent regional financial turmoil, Mr Lien said he believed economies in Southeast Asia would recover and Taiwanese businesses should take advantage of plentiful investment opportunities. 'We've got to look at the long-term opportunities for profit in the region,' he said. Taiwan's Central Bank Governor Sheu Yuan-dong said it had drafted a plan to lend island banks up to US$1.2 billion (HK$9.28 billion) for Southeast Asian investment.