TAIPEI, May 25 (AP) -- The daily newspaper of Taiwan's main opposition Nationalist Party will cease publication on June 1 if it doesn't find a buyer within the next few days, the paper said Thursday.

In a statement on its front page, the Central Daily News said the party had decided to stop funding the publication.

The Nationalists -- once described as one of the wealthiest political parties in the world -- have been facing financial pressure since losing power in the 2000 presidential elections.

The Central Daily News was founded in 1928 when the Nationalists still ruled China. It followed the party to Taiwan after their defeat by the Communist Party in 1949.

From the 1950s to the mid-1980s _ when Taiwan was under martial law -- it was the island's dominant newspaper, reflecting its role as the mouthpiece of the ruling Nationalists.

But when the press gained greater freedom in the late 1980s, its position quickly deteriorated in the face of competition from livelier, more liberal publications.

The paper has accumulated losses of more than 800 million New Taiwan dollars (US$25 million; €19.5 million), and losses this year reached NT$8 million (US$250,000; €195,000) a month, the party said.

The party blamed its problems on the difficult situation facing Taiwan's printed media in general, the paper said. Many Taiwanese newspapers have suffered dwindling sales and advertising income in recent years, losing readers to television and the Internet.

Last October, one of Taiwan's two evening daily newspapers, the China Times Express, closed after 17 years in operation.

The paper's closure would leave about 70 people out of work.