Taipei - Taiwan and China were expected to hold their third round of talks before May in the Chinese city of Nanjing on further economic cooperation, a senior official said Friday. "If the preliminary talks go smoothly, the third-round talks will be held even earlier than the beginning of May as some local news media have reported," said Kao Koong-lian, vice chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, which represents Taiwan with China in the absence of formal relations.

Kao - who returned to Taipei Thursday from a meeting with his mainland counterpart, Zheng Lizhong, in Shanghai
- said at a Taipei news conference that the mainland had agreed to a proposal by the foundation to hold the third round of talks in Nanjing to "avoid political sensitivity."

He was referring to the first-round talks held in June in Beijing . Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders met with foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung on the sidelines of the talks.

By holding the third-round talks in Nanjing, it meant there would be no meeting between Hu and Chiang, which would largely reduce the political nature of the talks and institutionalize cross-strait negotiations in the future, foundation officials said.

Taiwan and China, rivals since they split at the end of a civil war in 1949, mended fences after President Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, took office in May.

A month later, the two sides held their groundbreaking talks in Beijing to discuss air travel and tourism cooperation. 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.

Kao 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)