Taiwan's Ma picks former premier as running mate

TAIPEI, June 23 (Reuters) Taiwan presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, who is from the main opposition party and seen as conciliatory towards China, has picked a former premier and economic expert as his running-mate for the 2008 election.

Ma, from the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and one of two serious contenders for the presidency, chose former premier Vincent Siew because of his experience, one of Ma's aide told Reuters.

Siew, 68, served as economics minister from 1990 to 1993 and as premier from 1997 to 2000 under then president Lee Teng-hui. He now chairs the authoritative Chung-hua Institute for Economic Research.

Siew ran unsucessfully for vice-president alongside KMT candidate Lien Chan in 2000, when opposition leader Chen Shui-bian swept to power, putting an end to half a century of Nationalist rule.

Ma faces a close contest next year with Frank Hsieh, candidate of Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The DPP favours formal independence from China, which sees self-ruled democratic Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.

The KMT, which ruled all of China before losing power to Mao Zedong's Communist armies in 1949 and fleeing to the island, favours maintaining the status quo pending eventual reunification.

REUTERS GP PM1209