Taiwan’s opposition leader and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed today to work together to try to end decades of hostilities between Beijing and Taipei, a spokesman for the Taiwanese delegation said.

Taiwan’s ruling party today criticised a history-making trip to Beijing by opposition Nationalist Party leaders, saying the visit plays into the hands of the communist mainland in its efforts to divide the Taiwanese people.

Chinese communist officials and a leader of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party have held the highest-level meeting between their parties since civil war split the two sides in 1949. They called for expanded economic ties.