BEIJING, Dec 21: China said on Tuesday a proposed anti-secession law was aimed at preventing Taiwan from becoming independent, but refused to say whether it would set a deadline for the island to reunify with the mainland.

"The initiation of the anti-secession law by China's National People's Congress has its sole purpose of containing Taiwan independence forces' separatist activities," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

The government announced last week that the national legislature, known as National People's Congress, would consider the draft legislation at its Dec 25 to 29 meeting. Sketchy reports in the state-run media had not mentioned Taiwan by name and Mr Liu's comments were the first identifying it as the target.

Chinese political scientists have said the law could make it illegal for Taiwan to declare independence and might create more leeway for Beijing to take the island by force or pressure it to accept reunification.

One proposal submitted to the legislature suggests setting a deadline of Dec 2020 for Taiwan to agree to reunification or face attack. Mr Liu declined to elaborate when asked whether Beijing would impose a timeline for reunification and what measures it would take for non-compliance.

"This action is beneficial to maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Taiwan Straits and the Asia-Pacific region," he told a regular briefing. "The Chinese government's standpoint is to achieve peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems.

This is the basic policy for achieving national unification." By initiating the process of adopting the law, China "aimed to achieve as much as possible peaceful reunification", Mr Liu said. -AFP