HONG KONG  President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan announced Wednesday that Chinese officials had dropped their objections to Taiwan’s participation as an observer at a United Nations body, a step forward in Taiwan’s effort to win greater international recognition.

China strongly hinted that it was prepared to let Taiwan participate in the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization. But Beijing stopped short of explicitly saying that it had accepted a Taiwanese presence at a gathering of the assembly next month.

Mao Qunan, the spokesman for China’s Health Ministry, said in a statement that the World Health Organization had invited Taiwan to participate next month, adding that “the current arrangement reflects our overall concern and good will toward Taiwan compatriots, and this promotes the cross-strait relationship and the peaceful development of relations.”

The World Health Organization, preoccupied with the global spread of a new strain of influenza, had no immediate comment on Wednesday. Taiwan made its participation more palatable to the mainland by agreeing to use the name “Chinese Taipei” instead of its legal name, the Republic of China, or the name by which it is best known, Taiwan.