Taipei, Nov 4 : China and Taiwan reportedly signed agr

Beijing - China's ruling Communist Party sees the signing of four economic agreements with Taiwan on Tuesday as a small step on the path that it hopes will lead to eventual unification with the island state, a leading scholar said.

"In this situation the main aims are to promote economic, trade and cultural exchanges across the Strait, and to realize and normalize the 'three direct links' of trade, mail, and air and shipping services across the Taiwan Strait," Li Jiaquan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"This trip does not cover political issues," Li said of the three-day visit to Taiwan by Chen Yunlin, the head of China's Association of Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).

Taipei - Negotiators met Tuesday to prepare signing four pacts on expanding trade ties across the Taiwan Strait, in the first high-level talks with China held on Taiwan since 1949.

China's chief negotiator Chen Yunlin and his Taiwan counterpart Chiang Ping-kun, who met at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, are expected to sign the agreements Tuesday afternoon.

They cover direct sea links, the expansion of weekend charter flights between the China and Taiwan to daily charter flights, direct postal services and food safety.

Beijing - The death toll has risen to 26 with more than 40 people still missing after heavy rain caused landslides in mountainous areas of south-western China's Yunnan province, the government said Monday.

Torrential rain caused mud and rock to flow down valleys and hillsides in at least 13 counties of Yunnan over the past few days, affecting more than 411,000 people, the provincial Civil Affairs Department reported on its website.

Singapore - Singapore Exchange Ltd on Monday signed an agreement with the government of China's south-eastern coastal province of Fujian to promote the listing of Fujian companies on the Singapore market.

Twenty-one Fujian firms with a total market capitalization of 4.2 billion Singapore dollars (2.86 billion US dollars) are already listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Fujian's Development and Reform Commission Office agreed to provide guidance to companies that wish to list in Singapore and facilitate regulatory checks and approvals from Chinese authorities, the exchange said.

Yangon - Trade between Myanmar and China increased 60 per cent in the past fiscal year, ranking China the second-largest trading partner for the country after Thailand, news reports said Monday.

Trade between Myanmar and China reached 2.4 billion dollars for the year that ended March 31, compared with 1.5 billion the previous fiscal year, Myanmar's prime minister, General Thein Sein, said last week in Nanning, China at a summit between China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member