Taiwan and the mainland are expected to hold a new round of talks as soon as the end of this month to allow direct cross-strait flights without a detour into a third party's airspace.

If finalised, the new deal would cut flight times by between 30 and 90 minutes, officials said yesterday.

"Direct flights without a detour are one of the major issues the two sides are going to negotiate in the next round of talks in Taipei," said Kao Koong-lian, vice-chairman of Taiwan's semi- official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

The other issues included cargo charters and direct shipping, he added.

SEF, which represents Taiwan in talks with the mainland in the absence of formal ties, held landmark talks in Beijing last month to lift decade-old restrictions on regular charter flights across the Taiwan Strait and mainland tourists visiting the island.

Mr Kao's mainland counterpart, Wang Zaixi, of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (Arats), confirmed that deputy- secretary-level officials of the two sides would hold preparatory talks on the issues soon.

"One topic will be direct flights without detours, and the other is cargo charters and direct shipping," Mr Wang told Taiwan's TVBS cable news network.

Mr Wang, who arrived in Taiwan on July 6 to attend a seminar, said the preparatory talks would be held in Taipei as soon as the end of this month or early next month. He said Arats chairman Chen Yunlin would visit Taiwan, possibly this autumn, to sign the agreement.

Mr Kao said there should be no problems for SEF in holding the talks at the end of this month as long as the mainland was ready.

"It is a consensus for the two sides to start the talks at the end of this month, but Mr Wang will return to Beijing tomorrow, and I am not sure whether Arats has enough time to prepare for this," he said.

Taiwanese airlines and businesspeople have asked the island's government to allow direct flights to save time and fuel.

Under an agreement signed by Taipei and Beijing last month to cover regular weekend charter flights, six airlines from each side of the Taiwan Strait are eligible to operate 18 return flights between Friday and Monday, but all flights must go via Hong Kong airspace.

That stipulation was included when the former pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party government of Taiwan raised national security concerns when it struck a deal with the mainland to operate charter flights during traditional holiday periods.

The DPP government insisted that flying via Hong Kong airspace was necessary to give the island's defence ministry enough time to react if the mainland launched an air raid under the cover of a civilian airline service.

SEF and Arats followed the same practice in their talks last month on weekend charter flight operations.