SENIOR Minister Lee Kuan Yew is to visit Taiwan next month to assist with future talks between Taipei and Beijing, it was reported today.

Lee's planned trip to Taiwan in September is at the invitation of President Chen Shui-bian but details of the tour were unknown, the United Daily News cited Foreign Minister Tien Hung-mao as saying.

Singapore officials declined to comment on the planned trip when contacted.

"At this present moment I am not aware of such a trip," Lee's press secretary told AFP.

Lee, who was instrumental in pushing for the historic meeting between top envoys from Taipei and Beijing in 1993 in Singapore, was expected to talk to Chen about cross-strait relations.

He urged Taiwan and China to reopen talks this year after meeting Chinese leaders in June, saying that it would be dangerous to drag out the current stalemate.

Relations across the Taiwan Strait soured after former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui last year described cross-strait ties as a "special state-to-state relationship." The words were deemed by China to be a departure from the "one China" principle, and Beijing launched military exercises along the southeast coast to intimidate the island.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory and has vowed to use force against the island if Taipei were to declare independence.

Taiwan and China have been separated since 1949 after a bitter civil war.

Lee, the autocratic architect of independent Singapore, has maintained close relations with leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

He met Chen four times when the former Taipei city mayor travelled to Singapore during the period 1994-1998, the paper said.

The last time Lee visited Taiwan was September 1994.