Mr Ma is to visit Paraguay and the Dominican Republic, two of the 23 nations that recognise Taiwan rather than China, from which the island split in 1949 after a civil war.

In marked contrast to his predecessor Chen Shui-bian, Mr Ma will keep the visit low key and will not 'hold any public activities' during an overnight stay in Los Angeles, said Jason Yuan, Taiwan's new de facto envoy to Washington.

Mr Yuan said the president's US stay will be arranged in accordance with the principles laid out by the US authorities - safety, dignity and convenience.

Analysts agree that the manner of the visit is deliberate.

'Ma does not want to cause any trouble to the host. Certainly this is a friendly message to Washington,' said George Tsai, political science professor at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

Mr Chen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party had time and again pushed for high-profile stopovers during trips abroad.

The requests rankled officials in Washington, which recognises Beijing but maintains close ties with Taipei.

Mr Ma intends to avoid such controversy.

'It can also be seen as a goodwill gesture to Beijing,' said Professor Liu Bih-rong of Soochow University.

With that in mind, Mr Ma has said that during his tenure as the president, 'Taiwan would not become a trouble maker. Rather we should act as a peace maker.'

The softly spoken Mr Ma has pledged to repair Taipei's ties with Washington, which he said had been fractured by Chen's moves and his pro-independence rhetoric.

Washington has remained the leading arms supplier to Taiwan despite its switching of diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

Taipei's diplomacy has made a significant shift after President Ma of the China-friendly Kuomintang took oath of the office on May 20.

He called for a 'ceasefire' to the two cross-Strait rivals' notorious decades-old 'chequebook diplomacy' using generous financial packages to buy allies away from each other, especially in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.

'Paraguay will be a key barometer to see if Beijing responds positively to Mr Ma's call,' Prof Liu said.

Taiwan-Paraguay ties have reportedly hung in the balance for years.

But Taipei has recently become nervous after Paraguay's president-elect Fernando Lugo, a leftist ex-bishop elected in April, was reportedly said to be seeking to normalise ties with Beijing when he takes office this month.

'Taiwan's participation in international organisations is another point that can be used to measure Beijing's interest in Ma's proposed diplomatic truce,' Prof Tsai said.

Taiwan, under its official name the Republic of China, lost its United Nations seat to mainland in 1971.

Its efforts over the past 14 years to rejoin the world body using its official name have been repeatedly shot down by Beijing, a permanent veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council.

Taiwan's bids to join the World Health Organisation as an observer has also been blocked by Beijing.

Yet the most visible sign yet in the thaw of the Taipei-Beijing tensions came on July 4 when more than 700 Chinese holidaymakers flew to the island on the first direct regular charter flights in nearly six decades.

Mr Ma's administration has also allowed more Chinese tourists to visit the island and relaxed controls on China-bound investments, issues which had been shunned by the former DPP government. -- AFP