National Taiwan University Vice President Bau Tsong-ho on Saturday urged Taiwan and China to allow latitude when they get around to ironing out a cross-strait peace agreement. On the second day of the Taipei seminar hosted by the Pacific Cultural Foundation for scholars from China and Taiwan to share their views, Bau said a peace agreement would only be possible with several conditions, including flexible interpretation of the 'one China' principle on which Beijing has insisted. The proposed agreement should be a 'transitional' pact rather than a final one, as time is not yet ripe for Taiwan to talk about unification with China. More importantly, he added, China should recognize the existence of the Republic of China, otherwise 'the prospects for a peace agreement would be pessimistic.' Besides, he said that China should renounce the use of force against Taiwan in exchange for the island's promise not to seek a de jure independence, or even accept peaceful unification with endorsement from its people. Professor Huang Jiashu of the People's University of China said that the peace agreement is not a 'trap' set by China for Taiwan, rather it is a formula that Beijing hopes will serve as the basis for developing long-term peaceful relations with Taiwan. Over 100 scholars from Taiwan and China at the two-day seminar focused their discussions on the political, economic and cultural developments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait over the past 60 years since 1949, when the Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the communists. The seminar marks the first time that political issues were openly discussed between the two sides since President Ma Ying-jeou's government came into power in May 2008. Such issues have remained off the table in cross-strait talks in which negotiators from both sides have reached nine agreements aimed at strengthening trade and economic exchanges. Participants at the two-day seminar were divided on such key issues as the 'one China' principle, the '1992 consensus ', a peace agreement and ways to establish cross-strait confidence-building measures. However they did arrive at the agreement that both Taiwan and China should 'pursue greater consensus while seeking to minimize differences, and shelve the disputes that could not be solved ' in their engagement. 