TAIPEI -- The former chief of Taiwan's largest opposition party headed for the mainland on Thursday on his second visit in a year.

Lien Chan, who stepped down as Nationalist Party leader in August, was scheduled to attend a trade seminar Friday and Saturday as head of a 170-member group, including some 50 leading Taiwanese businessmen.

Chinese President Hu Jintao was to meet Lien in Beijing on Sunday.

"Our two sides must bolster trade and economic cooperation so we can reap mutual benefits under a framework for peace," Lien said in a brief speech Thursday at the Taipei airport.

The first Lien-Hu meeting - in April 2005 - signaled an historic reconciliation between the political rivals, 56 years after the Kuomintang was defeated in a protracted civil war.

Since then, Lien and successor Ma Ying-jeou have stepped up pressure on Taiwan's leader to deepen trade and investment ties with the mainland.

The Nationalists believe that steps including sanctioning direct flights are necessary if the island is to make a successful transition from a manufacturing to a service-based economy.

The Nationalist platform calls for eventual unification with the mainland, so expanded trade links are important on a political as well as economic level.