NANJING, April 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Chairman Lien Chan of Kuomintang (KMT), or the Chinese nationalist party, arrived Tuesday afternoon in east China's Nanjing City, on the first visit to the mainland by the top leader of the party since it lost a civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949.

"This visit has been too late, but we finally took the first historic step," said the 68-year-old Lien upon his arrival. Heading a 60-member delegation, Lien had called his visit "a journey of peace."

The visit assumes significance as tensions have been escalatingacross the Taiwan Straits in recent years as a result of the Taiwan authorities' continuous push for the island's secession from China.

Lien and his delegation, who took a charter flight of China Eastern Airlines and landed at the Nanjing Lukou Airport around 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, received a red carpet welcome and were greeted byChen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and local officials.

A welcoming crowd of several hundred people, many of whom were domestic and foreign journalists, cheered and applauded when a smiling and hand-waving Lien emerged from the passenger cabin.

"Nanjing is not far away from Taipei in distance, but it has taken more than 60 years for me to revisit this city," said Lien in a brief speech at the airport. Now capital of the coastal province of Jiangsu, Nanjing was once China's national capital when the country was under the rule of KMT between 1920s and 1940s.

Lien, accompanied by his wife Lien Fang-yu and several KMT vice-chairpersons, has come at the invitation of the CPC Central Committee and its General Secretary Hu Jintao. During the eight-day visit, Lien will also tour Beijing, Shanghai and his birthplace Xi'an in northwest China.

Lien's visit has also set the stage for the first meeting in 60years between the top leaders of the CPC and KMT, as he is expected to meet Hu in Beijing on Friday. The last such rendezvoustook place in August 1945, when then party leaders Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek met in southwest China's Chongqing City to negotiate how to avoid a civil war.

The visit, which was arranged shortly after China's top legislature, the National People's Congress, enacted in March an anti-secession law aimed at checking and preventing "Taiwan independence", was smeared by the Taiwan authorities and diehard secessionists on the island as a so-called "act of selling out Taiwan".

Some of the secessionists even staged violent protests causing bloodshed at the Taoyuan Airport in Taipei on Tuesday morning, when Lien and his delegation were embarking on their journey.

Nevertheless, the visit has found more supporters on both sidesof the Taiwan Straits. About 96 percent of mainland respondents ina telephone poll welcomed Lien's arrival, while a survey in Taiwanfound a 40-percent supporting rate for Lien's trip as against a 20-percent opposition.

Huang Jiashu, a professor of international relations with the Beijing-based China Renmin University, called the KMT "an important political force in Taiwan" which holds a considerable number of seats in the local legislature.

"Therefore, if the dialogue between the CPC and KMT produces certain consensus about issues widely concerned about by the Taiwan people, it will surely help ease and promote cross-Straits relations," he said.

Calling the reunification with Taiwan something "where China's core interest lies", the CPC has repeatedly said it is willing to talk with any political parties in Taiwan as long as they uphold the one-China principle.

While the KMT was the first political party in Taiwan to respond to this call and take a positive step, it was certainly not the only or the last one.

James Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan,also accepted an invitation from Hu Jintao last week and is expected to head a party delegation to tour the mainland from May 5 to 12.