TAIPEI, Feb 1: Two senior Chinese officials arrived in Taipei on Tuesday to attend the funeral of the island's top negotiator with the mainland, Koo Chen-fu, amid signs that tension is easing between the longtime foes.

The visit by Sun Yafu and Li Yafei, both from Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), was the first since 1999 by high-level Chinese officials to the self-ruled island that China claims as a renegade province.

Although Beijing says the trip is a private one, calling the officials personal envoys of ARATS chief Wang Daohan, Sun said he hoped it would help improve his understanding of Taiwan's people.

"I haven't visited Taiwan for nearly 11 years and I really want to visit there again so I can better understand the people who live there," he told Taiwan reporters aboard his plane.

Taipei and Beijing have been locked in political and military confrontation since 1949 when the Communists won a civil war on the Chinese mainland and the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan. Beijing has threatened to attack the democratic island of 23 million if it declares statehood.

Tuesday's visit follows the first non-stop commercial flights between Taiwan and China since 1949. The special charters, which began on Saturday, are limited to the Lunar New Year period, but many hope they will lead to permanent direct air links.

Beijing played down the visit, saying Sun and Li would not discuss cross-strait issues during their 24-hour stay. ARATS and its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation formerly headed by Koo, handle bilateral relations in the absence of official ties.

It was thanks to Koo, who died of cancer in January, that Beijing and Taipei agreed to their own interpretations of the "one China" principle, in what is known as the 1992 consensus, a move that spawned talks between the adversaries. -Reuters