A chartered aircraft carrying a patient in a critical condition flew directly from Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, to Taiwan in the small hours of Monday for medical treatment.

This is the sixth humanitarian chartered flight since authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Straits announced they would allow chartered flights between the mainland and Taiwan in emergencies in June last year.

The patient, a Taiwanese man surnamed Liao, was diagnosed with kidney failure complicated by uremia at the hospital attached to Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.

A doctor and a nurse from the International SOS rescue agency as well as five relatives escorted Liao back to Taiwan, aboard an aircraft of Taiwan's TransAsia Airways.

Five similar medical emergency chartered flights across the strait were approved last year from Guangdong, Hunan, Jilin and Shanghai to Taiwan, carrying 18 patients.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2007)