Taiwan's mainland policy body said it had finalized an arrangement for transporting Taiwanese businessmen and their families home from the mainland for the Lunar New Year holidays early next year.

Both flights to and from the mainland will be required to make a stopover in Hong Kong or Macau, said Chen Ming-tung, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).

"We are allowing indirect chartered flights across the Taiwan Strait to serve a special purpose during the Lunar New Year holidays," Chen said.

The flights are required to land either in Pudong or Hongqiao airports in Shanghai and at Chiang Kai-shek or Hsiaokang airports in Taiwan, he added.

Airlines on the island will be permitted to offer such flights from January 26 to February 10, 2003.

Direct transport links, along with commerce and postal services, were severed in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Beijing deems Taiwan an indivisible part of China.

Last month Taiwan agreed to allow indirect chartered flights between Taipei and Shanghai during the lucrative Lunar New Year period. But it rejected a call from 140 "parliamentarians" to permit direct cross-strait chartered flights.

Beijing has given the nod to the proposed indirect chartered flights but it has asked Taipei to allow the mainland airlines to provide the same services.

Taiwan's Vice "Minister" of Transportation and Communications Tsai Tui said Taipei has not imposed a limit on the number of flights because it does not have a precise estimate of demand.

"Parliamentarian" John Chang, the grandson of the island's Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek, said that at least 30,000 Taiwanese businessmen were expected to book charter flights from Shanghai during the 10-day Chinese New Year festival.

Chang said he had approached six Taiwan airlines to provide 120 chartered flights between Taipei and Shanghai.

Tsai said the round-trip flights would cost 15,000-16,000 Taiwan dollars (US$431-460) each, about 2,000-3,000 Taiwan dollars cheaper than current regular indirect flights via Hong Kong or Macao.

Thousands of Taiwanese living or working on the mainland are currently restricted to a limited number of indirect flights home via Hong Kong and Macao.

(People's Daily December 5, 2002)