TAIPEI, April 3 (Reuter) Visits by U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Tibet's Dalai Lama have reinforced Taiwan's goslow approach on ties with China, pushing advocates of rash action toward the political fringe, analysts said on Thursday.

With Gingrich and the Dalai Lama both warning Taiwan against independence but hailing its democracy as a model for communist China, the island was likely to take their comments as a cue to maintain the status quo, the analysts said.

``Taiwan already has almost no staunch supporters of reunification left, and the cautions sounded by Gingrich and the Dalai Lama likely will take the bite out of the radical proindependence voice,'' National Taiwan University politics professor Chang Linchen for told Reuters.

``It's becoming more apparent the international community wants Taiwan to maintain its current status,'' she said.

That current status is de facto independence. There are no moves toward either full sovereignty or reunification with China, which has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since a civil war split them in 1949 and bitterly mistrusts the island's independence forces.

Between the extremes are the ruling Nationalist Party and the main opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party.

While the Nationalists officially espouse reunification with China once it is democratic, there is no electoral support for a swift unification.

Although the opposition dreams of sovereignty, voters will not seat an overly proindependence government as this could provoke Beijing to carry out its threat to attack Taiwan if the island made moves towards independence .

Gingrich, the outspoken Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, hailed Taiwan's democracy and bluntly warned China that U.S. forces would defend the island. But he also was explicit that Washington opposed independence.

``We reiterated our commitment to the principle of peaceful, voluntary reunification of Taiwan with the mainland consistent with the 'one China' policy,'' Gingrich said after meeting President Lee Tenghui on Wednesday.

``Gingrich made it clear that the United States does not want Taiwan to pursue an independence path that may cause violent reactions from the mainland,'' said Lu Yali, politics professor at National Taiwan University.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said during his sixday March visit that he sought ``genuine selfrule'' for Tibet, not independence. He urged Taiwan to accept ``some kind of close link with mainland China.''

``The proindependence people may feel very disappointed by the Dalai Lama and Gingrich,'' professor Chang said.

Professor Lu said Taiwan's radical proreunification camp, already feeble, would inch closer to oblivion after the visits.

``Both Gingrich and the Dalai Lama praised Taiwan's democracy. Why would any Taiwanese want immediate reunification under a communist system?'' Lu said.

Gingrich, who visited China before coming to Taiwan, called Taiwan's ``full democracy'' a model for China.

The New Party, once a fervent advocate of unification, has all but dropped the stance after Taiwan's freely contested 1996 presidential election, when its candidate lost badly to the incumbent Lee and his prostatus quo platform.

The defeat came even though China had mounted threatening war games near Taiwan before the election in a failed bid to dent Lee's support.

As an example of how Taiwan would seek to establish ties with China without undermining its own sovereignty, Taipei said on Thursday it would approve TaiwanChina sailings by mainland vessels-but none that flies communist China's flag.