The funeral in Shanghai of Wang Daohan, Chinese mainland's top envoy on Taiwan affairs, will be simple and open only to his intimate friends and deputies from some organizations, said Wang's children.

They thanked Chinese compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau and overseas Chinese for their condolences.

Wang was the president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

He died in Shanghai on Saturday at the age of 90.

Funeral details were not immediately available.

"We're deeply moved that many personages in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau and overseas Chinese hope to come to Shanghai and attend our father's funeral to express their condolences," said Wang's children in a written statement.

Wang's will said he wished to have a simple funeral, with only a few in attendance.

Wang and Koo Chen-fu, then chairman of the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation, held the first cross-strait high-level and non-governmental talks since 1949 in Singapore in 1993.

They held the second talks in Shanghai and reached a four-point consensus involving cross-strait dialogue on political issues in 1998.

Those Wang-Koo meetings were considered milestones in cross-strait relations by introducing rapprochement between the mainland and Taiwan.