TAIPEI—Chinese buyers touring Taiwan this week signed contracts with local suppliers worth at least US$4.13 billion, the head of the delegation said Saturday, in a show of closer cross-strait trade ties.

"As of today we have signed contracts valued at least $4.13 billion," said Liang Baohua, the chief of the Communist Party in east China's Jiangsu province.

The orders range from electronics, chemical industrial materials and machinery to agricultural products, Liang told reporters at the airport before returning to China.

The delegation, comprising 61 company representatives, is the most ambitious in a series of mainland purchasing missions to visit Taiwan, according to the island's ruling Kuomintang party, which facilitated the trip.

The latest deals are more than double the US$2.2 billion placed by a Chinese delegation in Taiwan in June while another spent about $3.9 billion in August, officials said.

The activity is also seen as the latest indication of strengthening trade links between the two sides.

Taiwan's opposition, which favors independence from China, has criticized the purchasing missions, saying they are aimed at using mainland money as an incentive to soften the island's stance on eventual reunification.

Taiwan and China have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still considers the island part of its territory and has vowed to get it back, by force if necessary.

But ties have improved markedly since last year when the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou became president here.