Taipei - Taiwan and China will hold preparatory talks in Taipei this Saturday to pave the way for their third round of negotiations planned at the end of this month to promote economic cooperation, a senior official said Tuesday. "The preparatory talks between Straits Exchange Foundation and Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits will be held in Taipei on April 18," said Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council, the island's top China policy planning body.

She said in the one-day preparatory meeting, negotiators of the two sides will finalize the venue location and agenda to be discussed during the third round of cross-strait talks.

She said Nanjing is one of the venue locations considered by negotiators from the two sides for the holding of the third-round talks.

On Friday, the foundation's vice chairman, Kao Koong-lian, revealed that if the preparatory talks go smoothly, the third-round talks will be held as early as the end of this month in Nanjing. The foundation, which deals with China's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits, represents Taiwan with China in the absence of formal relations.

The two sides - rivals since they split at the end of a civil war in 1949 - held their groundbreaking talks in June in Beijing to discuss air travel and tourism cooperation, thanks to the engagement policy adopted by President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Nationalist Party after he took office in May.

In November, they held the second round in Taipei and agreed to increase cross-strait charter flights, operate direct shipping and postal exchanges, and share information on food safety.

Lai said for the third round, the two sides would discuss a further increase in the number of cross-strait flights, the signing of a financial memorandum of understanding, Chinese investments in Taiwan and joint efforts to crack down on cross-strait crime. (dpa)