Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, a promoter of rapid cross-strait reconciliation efforts with China, said Monday he wants visit, two giant pandas, presents from China, at their new home at Taipei Zoo.

"I would like to go see the two pandas at the Taipei Zoo, but will go there when are not so many visitors because I don't want to cause inconvenience to others," he said in an interview with the Taiwan's news portal Yahoo. com.

When asked to comment if the pandas' names - Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, which mean "reunion" in Chinese - are appropriate and if Taiwan should change them, Ma said: "People are used to their names, and no one has asked to change them. The Taipei Zoo plans to show the pandas to the public on January 25, the eve of the Chinese New Year. That is a time for reunion. So I think their names are proper."

Chinese President Hu Jintao first offered Taiwan two giant pandas in 2005, but the gift was only accepted after Ma won the presidency earlier this year. The two animals arrived in Taipei on December 23.

The panda's names caused resentment among parts of the Taiwan public who perceived them to be politically loaded, but most Taiwanese by now accepted the names.

However, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party still insists on renaming them, or giving China a pair of Taiwan monkeys and name them Tai Tai and Du Du. Taidu means Taiwan independence.

Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. China has been urging Taiwan to reunify with the mainland, but Taiwan insists it is a sovereign state. dpa( )