``The 2.5-million strong PLA has made necessary preparations for the worst scenario (of war) to occur,'' Chinese military experts from the Academy of Military Sciences of the PLA said.

Stating that PLA is fully confident of winning, in case of war with Taiwan, deputy director of the Academy's Strategic Research Department, Fu Liqun and senior researchers Xiao Yin and Zheng Hai said ``PLA has been monitoring the Taiwan situation closely and has been making preparations for a possible war for a long time,'' they said.

The warning to Taiwan came in the official China Daily as the war of words between Beijing and Taipei escalated each day over Taiwanese President Lee Teng-Huis controversial comments on Taiwan's statehood.

Lee had said the relations between Beijing and Taipei must be treated as state-to-state whereas theformer regards the latter as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland.

The three experts warned that Beijing will not hesitate to use force against Taiwan at any price if the island declares independence from China.

The PLA is ready at any moment to smash any attempts to separate China, Gen Chi said last Saturday. He cautioned Taiwan not to underestimate China's firm resolve to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity and not to underestimate Beijing's courage and strength against separation and Taiwan independence.

Defending Gen Chi's views, the experts said it is the sacred obligation of any country to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity.

At the same time, they said the mainland would be extremely unwilling to see compatriots from the two sides of the Taiwan Straits enter into an armed conflict.

They suggested that the two sides of the Taiwan Straits could be reunified through peaceful means under the one country, two systems formula, currently inpractice in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Meanwhile, China's foreign trade minister has also made a veiled threat that lucrative Taiwanese trade ties with the mainland could face problems if President Lee fails to recant his remarks on the island's statehood, the official media reported on Friday.

``The `one China' principle is the basis and prerequisite for all exchanges between the two sides of the Straits, including economic and trade sectors," Shi Quangsheng was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.