The Chinese mainland and Taiwan have agreed to renew non-stop charter flights across the Straits for next year's Spring Festival, Beijing announced yesterday.

The announcement was made by Pu Zhaozhou, vice-president of the mainland-based Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange Council, at a news conference held by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

In line with the agreement, the charter flights will run for 25 days from January 20 to February 13 next year. All the flights will be required to fly through Hong Kong airspace.

The number of mainland cities to be linked with Taiwan by the charter flights will be increased by one, with Xiamen added to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Taipei and Kaoshiung will remain the two destinations on the island to be serviced by the flights.

A total of 72 round trips will be operated by six mainland and six Taiwanese airlines.

Apart from Taiwan businessmen and their families, other Taiwan residents who can legally travel between the island and the mainland will be allowed to take the flights for the first time.

Pu said the agreement had been brokered between his organization and Taipei Airlines Association, but declined to reveal any details about the negotiation process.

Both sides will conduct more talks on technical, logistic and other related issues to prepare for the charter flights during next year's Lunar New Year, which falls on January 29.

The negotiations for next year's Spring Festival went much more smoothly than for this year's, which took months of hard work and were completed only two weeks before the flights began.

Between January 29 and February 20 this year, two-way, non-stop charter flights operated between Taiwan and the mainland.

Six mainland and six Taiwanese airlines operated a total of 48 charter flights, carrying more than 10,000 mainland-based Taiwanese businessmen and their families home and then back again.

The charter flights were the first non-stop air links across the Taiwan Straits in 56 years because Taipei has banned transport, trade and postal links between the mainland since 1949. Cross-Straits flights usually have to touch down in Hong Kong or Macao.

He Shizhong, director of the Economic Bureau with the Taiwan Affairs Office, welcomed the arrangement, saying the charter services will greatly facilitate the travels of Taiwan compatriots.

More than half a million Taiwanese businessmen and their families are estimated to live and work on the mainland and hundreds of thousands of them return to the island for family reunions each Spring Festival.

He, however, regretted that next year's cross-Straits charter flight arrangement in still a one-off scheme that suffers from a limited number of destinations, and excludes mainland people from the service.

"What's more, they cannot really be considered direct flights across the Straits because of the Hong Kong detour," he said.

The director insisted that the cross-Straits charter flights should be operated for other major Chinese festivals, weekends and, eventually, become regular.

In a related development, the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's top policy-making body on cross-Straits policy, stopped a planned visit to Taiwan by Chen Yunlin, minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

Chen had been invited by the opposition Kuomintang to visit Taiwan for a high-level forum in mid-December.