The official China daily quoted a senior adviser to the Beijing body that deals with Taiwan affairs as saying a pivotal October visit to Taipei by the group's head would be ``impossible'' unless Taiwan explained its contentious policy shift.

Zhang Kehui, adviser to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), called for an explanation from the group's Taiwan counterpart to pave the way for a visit to the island by ARATS chairman Wang Daohan.

``We think that the time will not be ripe for Mr Wang to visit Taiwan until Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-foo clarifies the definition of cross-straits talks as `bilateral talks between two states','' Zhang was quoted as saying.

The remarks by Zhang, a prominent defector from Taiwan, were Beijing'sfirst public hint that it might entertain offers by Taipei to explain its policy change.

Wang, scheduled to reciprocate Koo's visit to the mainland last year, said on Monday as the storm broke that Taipei's scrapping of its ``one China'' policy had removed the foundation of cross-straits ties and cast his trip in doubt.

Taiwan said on Tuesday it would make every effort to explain its posture to Beijing, but the communist authorities had shown no signs of a willingness to listen until Zhang's remarks were published today.

Taiwan sparked the latest cross-straits crisis by declaring earlier this week it was abandoning the ``one China'' policy -- the foundation of Taipei-Beijing relations for decades.

China responded with predictable rage and days of vitriolic attacks on Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, who first publicised the policy shift in an interview with German media last weekend.

Yesterday, the Liberation Army daily military newspaper renewed China's threat to retake the nationalist-ruledisland by force if it declared independence and called Lee ``a criminal of the nation who will leave a stink for a thousand years.''

But rather than reverse itself in the face of Beijing's mounting threats, Taiwan ordered state agencies yesterday to sell its move to China and the world.

Taipei said the idea of one, indivisible China that included Taiwan -- a mutually-accepted formula that has prevented war between them -- had to be scrapped because Beijing was using it to undermine the legitimacy of Taiwan.

The US has urged both sides to do nothing that would jeopardise talks between Beijing and Taipei envoys and told China it would not tolerate a violent solution to the Taiwan issue.

``We would... consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means as a threat to the peace and security of the western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States,'' State Department spokesman James Rubin said in Washington.

Taiwan has been estranged from the mainland since thenationalists lost a civil war to the communists and fled to the island in 1949. Beijing has since pressed other countries not to extend diplomatic ties to Taiwan's republic of China.

Chinese threat reported

HONG KONG: The independent Hong Kong Economic Times newspaper said on Friday that China might occupy one or two of Taiwan's outer islands if Taipei showed signs of pursuing independence. Quoting a source in Beijing, the Chinese-language daily said Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen was likely to issue a formal warning before the army launched any ``brief military contact'', which could include seizing one or two islands. Another local paper, the Sing Tao daily, said mainland Chinese military movements had been detected in coastal areas facing Taiwan, saying some civilian aviation had been disrupted on Thursday to allow military flights to take place. Taiwan defence ministry spokesman Kung Fan-ting, speaking to Reuters at a forward defence placement in the TaiwanStrait, cast serious doubt on the reports. ``I have not heard anything about this,'' Kung said.