BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Hu Jintao and Lien Chan, top leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, staged a landmark handshake here Friday, as both parties cast away their 60-year feud to jointly push for reconciliation and lasting peace across the Taiwan Straits.

When the 68-year-old Lien, the first KMT chairman to visit the mainland in 56 years, was ushered into the East Lobby of the GreatHall of the People in downtown Beijing at 3 p.m. sharp Friday, the62-year-old Hu, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, had been waiting for a short while. Both smiling, the two leaders reached out their hands almost at the same time for a cordial handshake.

The high-profile handshake, live televised to tens of millions of audience in both the mainland and Taiwan, lasted for more than half a minute under the dazzling limelight from hundreds of photographers and cameramen allowed in to cover the historic event.

The Friday meeting is the first party summit in six decades between the CPC and KMT, both of which have exerted profound impact on the history of modern China.

During the last CPC-KMT summit in August 1945, then party leaders Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek met in Chongqing, southwestChina to negotiate a truce for a civil war. The peace efforts ended in failure and four years later the KMT lost the war and fled to Taiwan.

At the Friday meeting, Hu, who had invited Lien and his 60-member delegation to come, described the new summit as one "of great historical and practical significance," while Lien nodded toshow his approval.

"People from both sides across the Taiwan Straits should show the world (our) capability and wisdom in addressing disputes," added Hu.

Following more than two hours of close-door talks between Hu and Lien, the CPC and KMT jointly issued a press communique, whichsays that the two parties have reached a five-point consensus for "promoting peace and development across the Taiwan Straits".

According to the communique, the two parties have agreed to work together to promote "the earlier restoration of cross-Straitstalks", "the formal end of the state of hostility across the Straits", "all-round economic and trade relations and 'three direct links' across the Straits" and the "discussions about Taiwan's participation in international activities", such as the activities of the World Health Organization.

"It is the common stance of the two parties to adhere to the '1992 Consensus', oppose 'Taiwan independence' and seek peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits," says the communique.

The "1992 Consensus", reached in talks between the CPC and the then-incumbent KMT in the year 1992, endorses the one-China principle which is also widely recognized across the world.

Tensions have been escalating across the Taiwan Straits in recent years as a result of the Taiwan authorities' continuous push for the island province's secession from China.

During their meeting, Lien told Hu that the KMT delegation's mainland visit was something "not easy to make". Despite Lien's repeated statement that he would make the visit "a journey of peace" and "a trip of reconciliation", the Taiwan authorities and diehard secessionists in the island had smeared Lien as trying to "selling out Taiwan".

The press communique says that the CPC and KMT have reached their consensus on the basis of "both parties' commitment to promoting peace, stability and development of cross-Straits relations" and "both parties' concerns about the people's benefits".

"Both parties hope that ... the results of the party leaders' meeting will help promote the welfare of all Chinese compatriots across the Straits, open up a new chapter in cross-Straits relations and lead to a bright future of the Chinese nation," it adds.

At a press conference following the summit, Lien urged the Taiwan authorities to turn greenlight on the consensus reached by the KMT and CPC.

"If there's nothing wrong with that," Lien said, "I hope the authorities will not place obstacles."

A media opinion poll in Taiwan released Friday found that 66 percent of the surveyed supported cross-Straits reconciliation anddialogue. A similar survey in the mainland indicated 83 percent ofthe respondents believed the Hu-Lien meeting would "help ease tensions across the Straits and be remembered by the Chinese people as a landmark event."

"Today's summit ushers in a new era for the development of cross-Straits relations," said Li Yihu, a professor of Taiwan studies with the prestigious Beijing University. "In three to fiveyears, people might view the year 2005 as a watershed for cross-Straits relations."

The successful visit by Lien and his KMT delegation, which is to be followed by the visit of another Taiwan political leader, Chairman of the People First Party James Soong, in early May, willput the Taiwan authorities under the close watch of the whole world as people would like to see whether they will also take the correct path, the professor predicted.