Taiwan appoints top China negotiator as new premier

TAIPEI, May 14 (Reuters) Taiwan has named its top China negotiator Chang Chun-hsiung as its next premier, after Su Tseng-chang made a surprise announcement to step down over the weekend, President Chen Shui-bian said toay.

Chang, who had been a premier before under the Chen administration, is chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official organisation that is in charge of negotiations with China.

A cabinet spokeswoman said the handover ceremony would likely take place on Wednesday at the earliest.

Su became the fifth premier to quit since Chen took office in 2000. Chen's presidency will end in 2008.

The premier is the second most powerful man in Taiwan, after the president, and is in charge of setting policies and running the day-to-day administration of the government. He also heads the cabinet, with all the ministers reporting to him.

Chang's latest appointment comes at a time when the sharply divided parliament, of which opposition parties hold a slim majority, has yet to pass the government budget for 2007. The cabinet approved the budget months ago.

''(The Taiwanese people) don't want to see continued disagreements between the cabinet and the legislature,'' Chang told a news conference after the president announced his new appointment.

Chang called for political harmony to ensure stability in Taiwan.

Chang was the second premier under Chen's administration, following Tang Fei, from the main opposition Nationalist Party. That makes Chang the first premier to be selected from the ranks of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Shortly into his first premiership, which lasted from October 2000 through to February 2002, Chang shelved plans for a 5.5 billion dollars nuclear plant.

The move angered the opposition-dominated legislature and helped sow the seeds of a political deadlock between the ruling and opposition parties that lasts until this day.

REUTERS SM ND1026