Taiwan’s opposition leader called for closer cooperation between Beijing and Taipei today as he prepared to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, capping a historic reconciliation between his party and mainland communists whose civil war split China in 1949.

Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan’s visit comes as China tries to combat Taiwanese pro-independence advocates by reaching out to parties such as Lien’s that favor uniting the two sides. Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to attack if the self-ruled island tries to make its independence permanent.

In a speech to students at Beijing’s elite Peking University, 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 speech, which was interrupted repeatedly by applause.

“We can’t stay in the past forever,” he said.

On Thursday, Hu called Lien’s visit a “big event” in China-Taiwan relations. Speaking during a visit to Manila, Hu said Lien’s “journey of peace will definitely achieve a success.”

Lien appealed Thursday for a peaceful settlement to tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

“It’s the common aspiration for people on both sides of the (Taiwan) strait and a common historic responsibility,” Lien said after arriving in Beijing .

The Lien-Hu meeting will be the first between leaders of their parties since Nationalist dictator Chiang Kai-shek and communist guerrilla commander Mao Zedong held talks in 1945 an attempt to create a national unity government. They failed to reach agreement and after four years of war, the defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan.