BEIJING, China -- As a senior official from Taiwan ended a landmark visit here on Sunday, China and Taiwan promised to continue talking but also reiterated their profoundly different visions about the island's political status.

The differences, extending even to what they ought to discuss, suggest that a solution to one of Asia's most dangerous rifts remains distant.

"Only when the Chinese mainland has achieved democracy can the two sides of the Taiwan Strait talk about reunification," said Koo Chen-fu, the 81-year-old tycoon representing Taiwan here. His statement followed an hour-and-a-quarter discussion with China's president and Communist Party leader, Jiang Zemin.

Sunday morning, after Koo had a blunt exchange of views with Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen, Koo complained that China still failed to recognize "one simple fact, which is the existence of the Republic of China."

After the morning meeting a Chinese spokesman, Tang Shubei, said Taiwan must "look upon the mainland objectively and bravely face up to the international situation." He added, "Don't be an ostrich."

Still, both sides seemed anxious to put the best face on this visit and to keep the diplomatic wheels spinning into the future. Even if they produce no breakthrough, continued talks are seen by both sides -- and by keenly interested bystanders such as the United States -- as a way to head off a disastrous conflict that nobody wants.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province and is anxious to negotiate its return to the motherland.

Taiwan, in the decades since 1949 when defeated Nationalist troops fled the Communist victory on the mainland, has become a relatively prosperous democracy. More and more its people have an independent identity, and its government vows it will not even consider rejoining the mainland until China, too, is transformed.

Koo, leader of Taiwan's semiofficial Straights Exchange Foundation, came to China Wednesday to meet with his counterpart, Wang Daohan, 84, the leader of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits. The two elder statesmen met in Singapore in 1993. But a second meeting scheduled in 1995 was canceled by China, which was angered by what it saw as Taiwanese moves toward independence.

Relations reached a dangerous low in the following year as China shot missiles near Taiwan during its presidential elections, disrupting commerce, and the United States warned China to back off by sending two aircraft carriers near the area.

China has vowed to attack Taiwan if it declares independence and is pressing for political negotiations aimed at bringing Taiwan under its wing. It has offered to give Taiwan greater autonomy than that granted last year to Hong Kong, including the right to preserve its capitalist economy, hold elections and maintain its own army -- if it will accept Chinese sovereignty.

But Taiwan refuses to negotiate about its political status, insisting that China must acknowledge that Taiwan is already a sovereign, separate country in practice. Instead, Taiwan wants to talk about technical matters like fishing disputes and the treatment of cross-straits visitors and businesses.

During the current visit, the two sides pledged to continue with the newly reopened dialogue and Wang, the Chinese official, accepted an invitation to visit Taiwan at an undetermined future point.

Reflecting the clear desire of both sides to keep up positive momentum, the question of future agendas was blurred: The Chinese said Taiwan had agreed to include political matters in a mix of topics, while the Taiwanese said Sunday that all the practical issues they wish to discuss include, of course, a political element.

The meeting Sunday morning between Koo and Qian included the most pointed and honest exchanges in a visit that had been mostly filled with smiling toasts and visits to the opera and tourist sites, first in Shanghai and then in Beijing.

In his meeting with Jiang late Sunday afternoon, which lasted half an hour longer than scheduled, Koo said in an interview, the divisive central question of Taiwan's political future was not directly discussed. He described the meeting as pleasant and friendly, and said the two engaged in a general discussion about the meaning of democracy, with Jiang stressing that the mainland had its own needs and path.

A central goal of China, as well as of many Taiwanese businessmen, is for Taiwan to lift its restrictions on direct travel, commerce and communications across the straits at a time when Taiwanese investment and trade here are climbing. Koo said the restrictive policy represented Taiwan's effort "to strike a balance between security and commercial concerns."

"If we could get assurance that China will not use force against us, then we could talk about this," he said in the interview.

The Taiwanese, while stressing their desire for friendly dialogue, took several opportunities to publicize their positions during the visit.

When Wang, the Chinese official, agreed to make a return visit to Taiwan, the Taiwanese immediately suggested that he come in early December, so he could view first-hand the country's democratic legislative elections. The Chinese said that would be a bit too soon.

During the current visit, officials back in Taiwan publicly complained that China was aggressively continuing its strategy of isolating Taiwan diplomatically, avidly courting some of the 27 countries that still recognize Taiwan.

In Sunday morning's meeting, Qian, the Chinese official, said that it was only a natural development that more countries would switch allegiance from Taiwan to the mainland, since that was the official U.N. position, according to Chinese media accounts.

The Taiwanese brought along, as the third-ranking member in their delegation, a man with a well-known history as a democracy advocate inside Taiwan, who is now associated with a pro-independence opposition party. They asked if he could be one of the small group attending the Koo-Jiang meeting, but the Chinese refused. So Sunday evening, when Koo gave a final news conference, the man, Kang Ning-hsiang, was also given a chance to speak and he made his plea for democracy in China.

Sunday morning, Koo surprised the Chinese by announcing that Taiwan was considering asking to join an American-led multinational program in North Korea that aims to prevent production of nuclear weapons ingredients by helping to provide other energy sources. China is generally annoyed by Taiwanese efforts like this to gain international acceptance as an equal partner, but Sunday it had no clear reaction to this proposal.

Koo, despite the obvious gulf in the positions, said he was encouraged by the visit. "We'll keep talking, and we'll find ways to narrow the differences," he said in the interview. "We do have the patience."

Taiwan's interest in patience is clear enough, but diplomats here wonder and worry how patient China, for its part, will be on the issue of reunification, which Chinese officials constantly call their overriding foreign policy goal.