BEIJING - Taiwan's opposition leader met with Chinese President Hu Jintao today, capping a historic reconciliation between his party and mainland communists whose civil war split China in 1949.

In a ceremony televised live in both China and Taiwan, the two men shook hands in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's legislature in central Beijing, and expressed hopes of ending decades of hostility.

Beijing and Taipei should "focus on the direction of peace, stability and development for the future so that Chinese people on both sides of the (Taiwan) Strait can walk a path of peace and stability," Hu told Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan.

Lien responded: "What we need to realize is reconciliation and peace."

It was the highest-level contact in decades between the Nationalists, which once ruled all of China, and the communists.

The two sides fought a war in the 1940s but now are united in opposition to Taiwanese activists who want formal independence for the self-ruled island - a step that Beijing says it would go to war to stop.

Hu said Lien's visit "has already injected new vitality" into relations between Beijing and Taipei, which have no official ties despite surging trade.

After the 30-minute welcoming ceremony, the two delegations began private talks.

A spokesman for the Taiwanese delegation said they agreed to work together to end hostilities between Beijing and Taipei and to "promote the establishment of a military mechanism based on mutual trust."

Spokesman Chang Jung-kung also said the two political parties will jointly promote Taiwan's involvement in international bodies. Beijing claims the self-ruled island as its own territory and has tried to block its efforts to join such bodies as the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

Earlier today, Lien called for the two sides to "build a bridge to unite our people."

"This is something that our people will welcome because we want to avoid confrontation across the Taiwan Strait and our people would like to see dialogue and reconciliation and cooperation," Lien said in the 40-minute speech to students at elite Peking University.

"We can't stay in the past forever," he said.