(LJUBLANJA) - The recent positive changes in relations between China and Taiwan augur for a "bright future" but further efforts are needed, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Monday.

"I think we have a bright future in the development of cross-straight relations but, at the same time, the two sides need to make further efforts," he said after talks with EU officials in Slovenia.

He noted that recently there had been "positive changes on Taiwan as well as the situation across the Taiwan strait."

China and Taiwan will this week hold historic talks aimed at building trust following decades of angry rhetoric and military tensions which made their relationship one of the world's potential flashpoints.

The four days of meetings in Beijing, starting on Wednesday, will be the first direct dialogue between the rivals in over a decade and have come about thanks to a dramatic recent rapprochement between the long-time rivals.

Chinese President Hu Jintao late last month met the head of the ruling Kuomintang party in Beijing -- the highest-level contact between the two sides since 1949 -- and agreed to resume the talks.

China and Taiwan split at the end of a civil war in 1949 and their rivalry has since proven to be one of the most enduring threats to regional and global stability.

Both sides have spent billions of dollars preparing for another war against each other, with China insistent that it will eventually bring the island back into its political fold, by force if necessary.

Yang, meanwhile, urged the European Union to remain committed to the "one-China policy".

"We hope and expect that the EU will continue to do more things which are conducive to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations," he said.

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