Beijing - The Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, on Wednesday announced a cut in its benchmark interest rates by 0.27 per cent as a spur to economic growth.

Taipei - Taiwan announced Wednesday it will send former vice president Lien Chan to the November 22 leaders' summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 
(APEC) forum.

The announcement was seen as a breakthrough in the island's relations with China, which for years has opposed allowing any prominent Taiwan leader to attend the event, observers said.

"President Ma Ying-jeou has appointed Mr Lien Chan as his representative to the leaders' summit," the Presidential Office said in a statement.

Lien, honorary chairman of the ruling Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), was vice president between 1996-2000, and the party's chairman between 2000 and 2005.

Beijing - China on Wednesday admitted for the first time that its emissions of greenhouse gases have caught up with the world's longtime top producer, the United States, and said its reliance on coal would make emissions reductions difficult.

"According to our data, China's current total emissions are almost as the same as that of the United States," Xie Zhenhua, a top government economic planner, told reporters.

"Whether or not we have surpassed the US in emissions is in itself not important," he argued in presenting a key policy paper on climate change to the media. "We should look at the issue fairly and from a historic view."

Beijing - Richer, developed nations should lead the effort against climate change and help developing nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, China said Wednesday.

Longtime industrialized nations have a duty because of their historic responsibility for the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to provide cooperation, financing and technology transfers to poorer, developing countries, China's cabinet said in the White Book, their foremost policy document on climate change.

The vice chairman of China's top economic planning body said rich nations should commit at least 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic products to help poor countries fight global warming.

Beijing - Chinese shares dropped 2.94 per cent on Wednesday despite a massive rally on Wall Street overnight.

Taipei - Taiwan's Defence Minister Chen Chao-ming Wednesday said the military opposes opening the restricted air zone to allow cross-strait flights, during the second round of Taiwan-China talks in Taipei to begin next Monday.

"The air space in Taiwan is very small, and it is absolutely impossible for us to allow cross-strait planes to fly through our R8 zone," General Chen said in a parliament session in Taipei.

The R8 zone is one of the military's five strategic flight zones off-limits to civilian aircraft. It is located near the median of the Taiwan Strait, which provides the shortest distance in flights between Taiwan and China.