It is "very essential" for the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to open offices on each other's side, a mainland official said Wednesday.

"The anticipated offices will help handle issues during cross-Straits exchanges and properly safeguard legitimate rights and interests of the people on the mainland and Taiwan," Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference.

The ARATS and the SEF are respectively authorized by authorities in the mainland and Taiwan to handle cross-Strait issues. Fan said such issues would gradually increase along with the progress of cross-Straits exchanges following the realization of direct air and sea transport links and postal services.

Fan also said the mainland and Taiwan were preparing for the opening of tourism representative offices on each other's side while the exact schedule would depend on mutual negotiation.

"Tourism representative offices will promote the common development of tourism industries on both sides," she said.

The scheduled target of 600,000 mainland tourists to Taiwan for 2009 had been achieved, and the daily average number of mainland tourists was expected to exceed 4,000 during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday, she said.

The Spring Festival, or the Lunar New Year, falls on Feb. 14 this year, and most mainlanders will have a weeklong vacation starting from Feb. 13, the eve of the lunar new year.

Fan wished Taiwan compatriots "a lucky, peaceful and happy new year of the tiger" in Taiwan dialect at the end of the press conference.