Beijing yesterday gave Taiwan the green light to send a delegation from the island's semi-official cross-strait mediation body to the mainland as both sides prepared to re-start negotiations after a 33-month break.
Approval was expressed in a letter faxed to Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation from the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
In the letter, the association agreed to host a foundation delegation led by a deputy secretary-general.
It recommended the group visit on April 21 or 22 'or another time both sides find acceptable'.
Lee Ching-ping, a deputy secretary-general of the foundation, said his organisation would make detailed arrangements and offer a positive response to Beijing's suggestion within a few days.
The association letter said it hoped the foundation delegation would 'exchange opinions' with it on the proposed visit to the mainland by foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu, and a possible seminar on cross-strait issues to be jointly hosted by the organisations.
Mr Koo last met his mainland counterpart, association chairman Wang Daohan, in Singapore when the two signed an historic 1993 cross-strait agreement setting a regular schedule for Taipei-Beijing talks.