TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S pro-independence opposition on Monday denounced its government's weekend agreement with mainland China on closer economic cooperation, accusing it of failing the island's best interests.

'This is a failed negotiation,' said Tsai Ing-wen, chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), when asked to comment on the talks held in the eastern mainland city of Nanjing Sunday.

'The government should not easily believe China will show goodwill towards Taiwan... President Ma Ying-jeou should be held responsible' for failing to protect the self-ruled island's best interests, Ms Tsai said.

Taipei and Beijing agreed on Sunday to forge closer economic ties, including expanding air links and promoting mainland Chinese investment in Taiwan. They also agreed to fight jointly crimes that affected both sides.

Ms Tsai said Mr Ma, who has repeatedly pledged to respect 'one China,' had 'walked into the trap of Beijing. Under the circumstances, the meeting was doomed to fail.'

She said the DPP would demonstrate against the agreements, in Taipei on May 17. The rally will be held three days before the first anniversary of Ma and his Kuomintang taking over Taiwan's government from the DPP and its president, Chen Shui-bian.

Relations between China and Taiwan have improved dramatically since Ma came to power, with Sunday's meeting in Nanjing building on talks held in Beijing in June, the first direct dialogue between the two sides in 10 years.

The Beijing talks led to regular direct flights across the Taiwan Strait and measures to boost tourism. The two rivals then signed a range of follow-up deals at a meeting in Taiwan in November.

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but China views Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. -- AFP