Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's three-stage plan for cross-Straits ties was yesterday condemned as another "empty promise" and a "gimmick" to get votes.

Mainland experts on Taiwan studies urged Chen to demonstrate his sincerity towards the mainland through action rather than just words.

Their comments came after Chen said on Wednesday that he has a three-phase project to achieve the three direct links -trade, transport and postal services - between Taiwan and the mainland.

The leader reportedly told local media that the first stage is preparation for transport links and that negotiations will be conducted in the second stage.

"In the final stage, both sides will finalize all negotiations on the direct-links issue and begin to carry out the plan step by step. And that time, I believe, will come before the end of next year," he said.

Beijing's top government body in charge of cross-Straits relations, the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, yesterday refused to comment on Chen's remarks.

Professor Fan Xizhou, of Xiamen University's Institute of Taiwan Research in East China's Fujian Province, said there is "nothing new or substantial" in Chen's proposals.

The professor stressed that Chen's so-called three-stage plan would prove to be a mission impossible because Chen himself deliberately set a major hurdle to the realization of the three direct links.

In an earlier interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal, Chen said he will never agree to push ahead with the three links under the precondition of the one-China policy, which states that both Taiwan and the mainland are part of China.

Taipei wants to define cross-Straits transport links as "international routes," but Beijing insists the links should be regarded as the "internal affairs of a single country."

Fan said: "Chen's contradictory moves and remarks clearly suggest that he will not take any practical steps to open up the three direct links."

Chen has so far failed to take any concrete move to lift Taipei's decades-old ban on the three links, although he publicly hailed the opening of the links as "a road we must take" as early as May 9 last year.

Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described Chen's new overture as a gambit aimed at winning votes in the "presidential" elections next year.

Chen has to engage in empty talk to paint a false picture of better cross-Straits relations in the future because of his failure to improve bilateral ties during his time in office, Li said.

On the other hand, Chen's posturing is an attempt to ease mounting pressure on his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in the upcoming elections, given the close alliance between the two pro-reunification opposition parties, the Kuomintang and the People First Party.

He has been lagging behind his potential rivals - Lien Chan of the Kuomintang and James Soong of the People First Party - in opinion polls, which experts say undermines his hopes for re-election next year.

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