Mr Wu Poh-hsiung will become the first ever ruling party chief from Taiwan to travel to China, which still claims the island as part of its territory.

The visit will help push forward a thaw in ties, China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Chen Yunlin, the director of the Beijing agency that deals with Taiwan affairs, as saying.

According to a Kuomintang (KMT) press statement in Taipei, Mr Wu will meet Mr Hu and tour Beijing Olympic sports venues during his visit.

Tensions between Taipei and Beijing have shown some signs of easing since the China-friendly KMT trounced the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in the March presidential election.

The KMT's Ma Ying-jeou takes office Tuesday as president.

'Mr Wu's visit will be conducive to strengthening communication and dialogue of the two parties and will push forward the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations,' Xinhua - which used an alternative spelling of Wu's name - quoted Mr Chen as saying.

On May 26, Mr Wu is scheduled to lead a 16-member KMT delegation to Hong Kong, where they will take a charter flight provided by China to Nanjing, according to the party statement in Taipei.

Mr Wu is slated to visit Shanghai on May 29 and a Buddhist temple the next day in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu, to 'pray for cross-Strait peace and the victims killed by the Sichuan earthquake', the statement said.

Taiwan has sent a rescue team to southwest Sichuan province to help tackle the aftermath of the devastating earthquake there, which is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people.

Despite their past animosity, Taiwan's government has pledged 800 million Taiwan dollars (S$35.65 million) for earthquake relief and raised another 1.2 billion from the public.

The island's charities, businesses and individuals have already donated at least 2.4 billion Taiwan dollars, according to reports in Taipei, and the Red Cross and two local TV stations are planning a star-studded concert on Sunday to raise more. -- AFP