Passenger ferry service will begin between another pair of Chinese mainland and Taiwan ports on June 8, expanding a limited direct shipping service across the Taiwan Strait, a Chinese mainland official announced in Beijing on May 31.

    The ferries will operate between Quanzhou of east China's Fujian province and Jinmen of Taiwan, said He Shizhong, director of the economic bureau of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a routine press conference.

    On the inauguration day, a fair for agricultural products from both sides of the Strait will be held in Quanzhou to facilitate entry of Taiwan farm produce into the mainland market, said He.

    There have been no comprehensive direct mail, trade and transport links between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan since a civil war in the late 1940s.

    Fujian opened ferry services with Jinmen and Mazu, two small islands near Fujian, on 2001. Since then, the ferries have transported more than 1.4 million passengers and 3.96 million tonsof freight.

    "Operation of direct shipping services between Fujian, Jinmen and Mazu in the past five years have accumulated experience for realizing comprehensive direct sea transport links across the Strait," said He.

    The ships only carry company flags to avoid sensitive issues. "This method can certainly be expanded to include other ports," hesaid.

    The mainland side has been actively pushing for realizing comprehensive, direct and two-way mail, trade and transport links across the Strait, which is a necessity of economic exchanges and cooperation and personnel exchanges.

    Taiwan authorities, however, have been obstructing the process by setting various political conditions on opening relevant talks, out of fear closer links will lead to reunification with the mainland.

    Lack of comprehensive direct links have added much cost to Taiwan businessmen with investments on the mainland as transport of passengers and cargo have to go through a third place, mainly Hong Kong.

    According to statistics from China's Ministry of Commerce, a total of 68,095 projects funded by business people from Taiwan had been approved by the mainland by the end of 2005, with a contractual investment of 89.7 billion U.S. dollars from Taiwan.

    Indirect cross-Strait trade volume had hit 495.81 billion dollars by the end of 2005, including 81.73 billion dollars of mainland export to Taiwan and 414.08 billion dollars of Taiwan export to the mainland, resulting in an aggregate trade surplus of 332.35 billion dollars for Taiwan.

    The mainland has become Taiwan's No. 1 export market and largest source of trade surplus source.