Taipei  - Taiwan will send a delegation of senior trade officials to China for informal talks to pave the way for trade negotiations, Economics Minister Shih Yen-shiang said Monday.

"The delegation, headed by Bureau of Foreign Trade Director Huang Chih-peng, is expected to leave for the mainland this coming weekend for informal negotiations," Shih told reporters.

Shih said the delegates would exchange views with their Chinese counterparts on issues including tariff reductions for a list of industrial products.

His comments came after Beijing said on Sunday it was ready to begin negotiations for the semi-free trade pact with Taiwan before the end of the year.

"We are willing to negotiate with Taiwan and launch official discussions on a cross-strait economic cooperation agreement under the ARATS-SEF framework, as early as possible before year end," Wang Yi, head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.

The mainland Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and its Taiwan counterpart Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) were set up in early 1990s to represent the two sides in talks, in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.

Fearing it would be marginalized economically within the region, Taiwan hopes to sign the trade pact no later than early next year, when Beijing is supposed to form a trade bloc with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

A pact would reduce trade barriers, increasing the cross-strait flow of goods, services and capital worth nearly 130 billion dollars in 2008, according to the China Daily.

Some analysts predict a trade agreement could raise Taiwan's 2010 economic growth by nearly 1 per cent.

Taiwan and China are also scheduled to hold their fourth round of talks in the island's central city of Taichung in December, and sign four agreements on fishing, farm inspection, industrial standards and double-taxation avoidance.

The two sides held their historic first round of talks in Beijing in June last year, shortly after China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou took office and adopted a policy to engage China.

China and Taiwan had been bitter political rivals since they split at the end of a civil war in 1949.(dpa)