Li Yafei, secretary-general of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), said on Thursday that his organization would continue to make efforts to promote the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Li made the pledge while meeting with a visiting delegation of Taiwan notaries public, adding the association was willing, as always, to service compatriots on both sides.

The 10-member delegation, led by Lin Shu-min, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), visited Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing during the trip.

This is the first SEF delegation to visit the mainland after leaders of the SEF and the ARATS met in Taipei in early November.

During the visit, the notaries public from the two sides exchanged views on the implementation of the agreement on using and checking notarial certificates between the two sides of the Strait.

The agreement was signed in 1993 when the SEF and ARATS leaders met for the first time. It covered about ten sorts of notary service including heritage, adoption, birth proof and property right.

Under the agreement, the notary departments on both sides would deliver the copies of notarial certificates, which involved cross-Strait affairs, to each other and could examine the validity of the documents. This allowed people to use the certificates on the other side of the Strait.

Since 1993, more than 1 million pieces of notarial certificates have been delivered across the Strait.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2008)