Taiwan residents will be allowed to enter the legal profession on the mainland, with more than 30 having passed the annual judicial exam, a mainland official said on Wednesday.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said relevant departments were discussing necessary regulations, which would be "released at an appropriate time."

For years, law professionals from Taiwan have urged the mainland to open its judicial exams to Taiwan residents out of the need for closer cross-Strait economic and social exchanges.

The Ministry of Justice announced in April that Taiwan residents could sit the exam starting this year. A total of 658 Taiwan residents took the September exam, along with about 370,000 participants from the mainland.

Last year, about 294,000 people took the exam nationwide but only 22 percent passed.

The annual National Judicial exam, held in September, started in 2002. It was organized by the National Judicial Examination Center under the Ministry of Justice.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2008)