Weeks before Taiwan's presidential elections, Chinese President Hu Jintao offered on Tuesday wide-ranging peace talks with the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own.

In an indirect but clear reference to the party of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, Hu also said independence moves were the biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region. But he stopped short of threatening to attack the democratically run island if a planned referendum on U.N. membership alongside the March 22 elections is approved. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war and insists the island return to the fold, by force if necessary.

"Status in negotiations would be equal and the topics would be open, any issue can be discussed," Hu told a group of advisers to parliament who came from Taiwan or have ancestral links there. President Chen has been a thorn in Beijing's side since taking power in 2000 with his staunch pro-independence stance and often controversial remarks.

Hu insisted that Taiwan embrace the "one China" tenet which dictates that the island and the mainland are part of a single sovereign country. Taiwan has rejected the "one China" dogma. "We would be willing to have exchanges and dialogue, consultations and negotiations, with any Taiwan political party so long as it acknowledges that the two sides of the Strait belong to one China," Hu said. Hu, who doubles as Communist Party and military chief, also renewed an offer to seal a peace treaty and "form a framework for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations"(Reuters)