KMT deputy to visit mainland after ally announces similar trip

Missions suggest rivalry in leading cross-strait policy

Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang party will send its vice-chairman, Chiang Pin-kung, to visit the mainland next month, just days after its People First Party (PFP) ally said its deputy leader would make the trip later in the month.

KMT chairman Lien Chan did not say whether he would visit the mainland after Mr Chiang's trip, as reports have suggested, but an aide said he would do so later in the year.

Announcing Mr Chiang's visit at a ceremony to mark the '2-28 Incident' - when the KMT sent troops to suppress a riot in Taiwan in 1947, two years before it fled to the island - Mr Lien said Mr Chiang would visit the mainland to pay tribute to Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the KMT.

'March 12 this year will be the 80th anniversary of the death of the late founder. Vice-chairman Chiang Pin-kung will find a date to represent the KMT to pay homage to the late founder at his mausoleum' in Nanjing , Mr Lien said.

He said the visit would be significant because it could help to ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Mr Lien said the KMT, as the founding party of the Chinese republic established in 1911, had an obligation to promote cross-strait reconciliation.