Taipei (dpa) - The United States has assured Taiwan it has not frozen an arms package worth 12 billion dollars after reports last month of an alleged freeze, the Central News Agency (CNA) said Wednesday.

  CNA, in a dispatch from Washington DC, quoted visiting Taiwan Parliament Speaker Wang Jin-pyng as saying the US government is still going through the interagency review process.

Reports last month said the US had frozen sales of weapons because newly-elected President Ma Ying-jeou is shopping elsewhere in order to not jeopardize recently-warmed Taipei-Beijing ties.

Taipei - Taiwan's two major carriers, China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Air, have decided to cut a combined 35 flights per week from September 1 to cut costs amid skyrocketing fuel prices, airline officials said Wednesday.

Under the plan, CAL would cut at least 10 flights per week - four flights to Los Angeles, one or two flights to San Francisco and one flight to New York in the United States as well as four flights to Vancouver in Canada - a CAL spokesman said.

He said the airline would also suspend all four flights per week to Seattle.

EVA plans to cut 25 flights per week, including six flights to Los Angeles, two flights to San Francisco and one flight to Seattle, EVA officials said.

Taipei - Taiwan has donated 300,000 US dollars to Nicaragua to buy police uniforms to preserve its diplomatic ties with one of its few allies, the Central News Agency said Wednesday.

The donation to police chief Aminta Granera was made Tuesday by Taiwan Ambassador Wu Mu-chin in Managua. The money is to allow Nicaragua to provide uniforms for 6,000 police officers from now until 2011.

Taiwan's total donations to the Nicaraguan police force was now 3 million US dollars, the news agency quoted Granera as saying.

Taipei - Taiwan plans to lure foreign and mainland Chinese professionals with permanent residence permits and three-year work visas, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Cabinet councilor Chu Yun-peng said Tuesday that the measure will be introduced on August 1, according to the United Daily News.

Chu did not say what type of foreign professionals can apply for the residency and visas.

The paper quoted an unnamed Cabinet official as saying that Taiwan is mulling granting permanent residence to mainland Chinese professionals, especially those in research and development, finance and creative fields.

Taiwan has been considering offering incentives to attract foreign professionals for several years.

Taipei - Typhoon Fung Wong has caused at least 300 million Taiwan dollars (30 million US dollars) in agricultural damage in Taiwan, the Council of Agriculture said Tuesday.

According to the council, 3,345 hectares of crops and orchards were flooded as Fung Wong, which means Phoenix, slammed Taiwan over the weekend, destroying crops of vegetables and fruit.

The damage has affected vegetable supplies to cities, causing prices to rise 50 to 100 per cent.

Taipei - Taiwan said Monday that China has invited the leaders of Taipei's 23 diplomatic allies to attend next month's Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing, but these leaders have refused to attend.

"China has invited the heads of all countries, including our allies, to the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. So far, none of the heads of state or deputy heads of state of our allies will attend," Ko Shen-yeaw, director of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Central American Affairs, told reporters.