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TAIPEI : Taiwan and China have agreed to reopen talks to resolve a dispute over the number of flights between the former rival nations, a Taiwanese transport official said Sunday.
In May the two governments raised the number of weekly cross-strait flights to 370 -- from 270 -- in a further sign of thawing ties between Taipei and Beijing.
But the agreement has been only partially implemented prompting new talks on the issue.
Yeh Kuang-shih, a deputy transport minister said negotiators from the two sides will meet again to thrash out the differences.
"We hope to reopen the talks within a week or two," he told AFP.
Yeh said he was "cautiously optimistic" about the coming round of talks, details of which are yet to be finalised.
He called on both sides to do everything they can to "treasure the achievements of direct flights which were not easy to obtain."
Direct chartered flights between the countries started in 2008, followed last year by scheduled flights.
Chinese tourists made 900,000 visits to Taiwan last year and authorities on the island expect the figure to rise to up to 1.2 million this year.
Beijing still considers self-ruled Taiwan a part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, after the two sides split in 1949 at the end of China's civil war.
Ties between the two sides have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou came to power in 2008, pledging to boost trade links and tourism.
But opponents say he has built economic ties with China at the island's expense, an accusation flatly rejected by Ma.
- AFP/ir
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