A Chinese mainland official said Wednesday that the mainland hopes its chief negotiator's upcoming visit to Taiwan will be safe and smooth.
The mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) chairman Chen Yunlin will head a delegation to Taiwan from Nov. 3 to 7.
Leaders of the ARATS and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) will meet to discuss cross-Strait shipping, air transport, postal services, food safety and financial cooperation.
"Arrangements for the upcoming meeting should follow routines so that they are acceptable and convenient to both sides," State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi said.
The two organizations had already agreed on the locations and titles for meetings, he said.
Yang said the mainland believes that cross-Strait negotiation should tackle economic problems first.
"As for the issues left over from the past and political issues, we believe the two sides should work together to create conditions and gradually solve them through negotiation," he said.
Yang did not disclose whether Chen would accompany the two pandas that mainland had promised to donate to Taiwan.
"Departments concerned are making active preparations and we hope Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan can meet Taiwan compatriots soon," he said.
The 4-year-old pandas, one of China's most endangered animal species, are at a panda breeding base in Ya'an, western Sichuan Province.
They were transferred to the base on June 18 from the Wolong Nature Reserve, also in Sichuan, after it was seriously damaged in the May 12 earthquake.
The mainland announced in May 2005 it would donate two giant pandas to Taiwan to demonstrate goodwill. But their departure has been delayed for more than three years.
Chen's Taiwan visit will be the second meeting between the ARATS and the SEF in the last 10 years. The first, attended by SEF chairman Chiang Pin-kung, was held in Beijing in June.
Chen's trip to Taiwan was preceded by an incident in which ARATS deputy chief Zhang Mingqing was jostled by a crowd in Taiwan.