Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said China must stop targeting the island with hundreds of missiles to extend the deepest thaw in relations in six decades.

"People feel uneasy if we go to the negotiating table on security issues while still under the threat of missile attack," Ma, 59, said in an interview yesterday in Taipei. While ties with China are "good and getting better," missiles are "very much on the mind" of the island's people, he said.

China's President Hu Jintao this week sent Ma a congratulatory telegram on his election as chairman of the Kuomintang party, raising the prospect for an unprecedented meeting between the two leaders. Ma said yesterday he's in "no hurry" to meet with Hu, giving more priority to forging an economic agreement.

"A meeting with Hu isn't possible as Ma is also under tremendous domestic pressure," said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Taipei-based Chinese Council for Advanced Policy Studies. "The concern is Beijing may get impatient if Ma doesn't respond to calls for talks on security or peace issues and there may be consequences."

A summit with Hu, which would be the first encounter between leaders of the rival factions from China's civil war six decades ago, is "ultra sensitive," said Ma.

"We're really just beginning," Ma said, adding that direct flights and other agreements should have been made 10 years ago. Bilateral trade had already reached US$130 billion before the flights were introduced. The government expects a so-called Economic Cooperation Framework, or ECFA, trade pact to create 273,000 jobs and boost exports by between 4.87 percent and 4.99 percent.

Taiwan last month opened up 64 sectors in manufacturing, 25 in services and 11 public infrastructure projects to Chinese companies, giving investors from the mainland access to industries including automobiles, plastics, textiles, personal computers and handset manufacturing.

Gross domestic product shrank an unprecedented 10.24 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from a year earlier. Taiwan's exports fell for the 10th straight month in June as global demand for electronics tumbled, and the jobless rate climbed to a record.

Mainland Chinese tourists have taken more than 350,000 trips to Taiwan since a travel ban was lifted a year ago, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported in June.

Opening to mainland investment needs to proceed cautiously because of the danger that Taiwan business could be swamped by Chinese money, Ma said. Foundries and the liquid-crystal-display and telecommunications industries remain closed.

The restriction has prevented China Mobile Ltd.'s plan to buy a 12 percent stake in Taiwan's Far EasTone Telecommunications Co.

Ma said deepening economic ties would be inevitable, even should the opposition Democratic Progressive Party be re-elected.

"This is something that nobody can prevent," Ma said. "The DPP knows that very well and if they came to power, they would do the same thing," he said, adding that Taiwanese investment in China tripled from US$30 billion under the eight years of a DPP administration.

"If people can make money in the mainland they will go, no matter how hard you try to stop them."

"The Taiwan Strait could be the beginning of a bigger conflict, that's the reason why everybody is happy when we adopted the policy to ease that tension," Ma said. "I think mainland China also appreciates that very much."

China must remove its missile threat before any peace deal is possible, Ma said. China continues to increase the number of missiles aimed at Taiwan by about 100 a year, he said.