Mainland authorities will start talks with a Taiwanese opposition delegation on Monday about allowing direct cross-Straits charter flights during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.

The negotiations are held in hopes of launching non-stop, two-way charter flights between the mainland and Taiwan during the 2005 Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival holiday, which begins on February 9.

The island has banned direct air links with the Chinese mainland since 1949.

A six-member Kuomintang (KMT) delegation led by Tseng Yung-chuan, director of the KMT's central policy committee, arrived in Beijing Sunday afternoon for the talks. Delegation members also include spokesman Chang Jung-kung and John Chang, who initiated the direct cross-Straits charter flights in 2002.

Sources with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Sunday that the group was scheduled to meet with Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, on Monday morning and will hold talks with officials of the Civil Aviation Administration of China in the afternoon.

Beijing has proposed non-governmental talks to work out technical and business issues concerning cross-Straits charter flights.

Cross-straits charter flights were first run between Taipei, Kaohsiung and Shanghai during the 2003 Spring Festival, but involved only six Taiwanese airlines. All charter planes were required to transit through a third place.

(China Daily January 10, 2005)