Taipei, Taiwan ? Hours after nearly 500,000 opposition supporters protested outside his offices in central Taipei, President Chen Shui-bian late Saturday agreed to meet his two main political rivals for talks in what was viewed as a major step toward resolving Taiwan’s postelection crisis.

“Without any precondition, I hope to conduct a summit with Chairman Lien and Chairman Soong next Monday,” said Chen at a news conference, referring to opposition presidential candidate Lien Chan and his vice presidential running mate, People’s First Party leader James Soong.

Chen told reporters that he would accept opposition proposals for a complete recount of all ballots in last weekend’s presidential election and also accept the results of the recount. Taiwan’s fragile democracy sank into confusion when the opposition refused to accept the vote tally that gave Chen victory by a margin of less than 30,000 votes of the nearly 13 million cast.

Chen’s concessions came shortly after the largest show of anger so far about the disputed results of the March 20 election.

Opposition demonstrators spilled out in a sea of yellow rain slickers and red-dominated national flags for nearly a quarter of a mile back from the gates of the presidential office building. The protesters remained peaceful throughout a long afternoon drizzle as they listened to speaker after speaker from the opposition alliance vent their wrath at Chen, who they accuse of stealing his narrow victory.

Thousands of police equipped with riot gear were deployed to keep order. Chen, in return for his concessions, ordered that all protesters leave the area in front of the presidential office by Monday morning, nine days after the first of them began camping in the street to protest.

Saturday’s peaceful protest was in sharp contrast to the tumultuous scenes Friday in Taipei when a few thousand angry and unruly protesters stormed the Central Election Commission in a futile attempt to prevent it from declaring that Chen had won the election. Later in the day, the commission certified the final vote count as official.

After refusing to concede defeat a week ago, Lien and Soong demanded a recount and challenged the validity of the results in court, calling for a new election.

A woman cheers in support of defeated opposition candidate Lien Chan at a massive election protest in Taipei, Taiwan. Nearly a half-million demonstrators gathered Saturday to call for a recount of the vote in last weekend's disputed presidential election.