Taiwan's president yesterday defended a historic summit with China as the first step to normalising relations between the leaders, as opponents, wary over a rapprochement after decades of hostility, accused him of selling out the island.

Ma Ying-jeou will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Singapore tomorrow.

Ma said the meeting was to ensure the future of cross-strait relations and would also be a chance for Taiwan to come in from the cold internationally, where few countries recognise it as a state.

It will be the first time leaders from the two sides, separated by the narrow Taiwan Strait, will have met since their split at the end of a civil war on the mainland in 1949, which left Taiwan to forge its own identity as a democracy.