Taipei- A Taiwan banking consortium on Tuesday agreed to cut the interest rate on its loan to the Taipei High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC), which has gone into the red.

The banking consortium has agreed to cut the interest rate on its loan to the THSRC from 8.1 to 4.59 per cent, Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) reported, apparently after being persuaded to do so by the government.

The reduced rate can help the THSRC to save 1.4 billion Taiwan dollars (45 million US dollars) annually in interest, BCC said.

Taipei- Taiwan announced new measures Tuesday to further open up the island to the mainland by allowing Chinese people to visit through two of its former defence outposts.

"The cabinet is expected to approve the new measures this Thursday to allow mainland Chinese to visit the Taiwan proper via Kinmen and Matsu," a statement from the Mainland Affairs Council said Tuesday.

Taipei  - Taiwan's former security chief admitted Tuesday to giving former president Chen Shui-bian two sensitive documents concerning alleged money-laundering implicating Chen's family.

"I felt pained in the past 20 days over the case and I believe honesty is the best policy, so I decided to tell the truth," Yeh Sheng-mao told a hastily called news conference in Taipei.

Yeh, who was indicted on Thursday for covering up the snowballing money-laundering scandal, said he received a report from international investigators on January 29 saying Chen's family was suspected of laundering money through bank accounts set up by his son and daughter-in-law in the Cayman Islands.

Taipei - Taiwan's bicycle manufacturer Giant, riding on robust sales in China due to the Beijing Olympics, is poised to achieve at least 10 per cent growth in output in 
2008, the company said Tuesday.

"In 2007 we manufactured 5.02 million bikes. In the first half of 2008, our output hit 2.96 million units, up 6 per cent year-on-year in quantity and up 25 per cent in revenue," Giant spokesman Jeffrey Sheu said.

Giant, a world leader in high-end bikes, is optimistic about its whole-year output as it had bumper sales in Beijing in the run-up and during the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

Taipei - Taiwan on Tuesday denied that its diplomatic ties with Paraguay are shaky, following press reports that Paraguay will stop backing United Nations membership for Taiwan.

"In our allies' change of government, there might be changes in their support for our joining international organizations, but it will not affect bilateral ties," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Chen Ming-cheng told reporters.

"President Lugo has said several times that Paraguay-Taiwan ties are solid, so Taiwan-Paraguay ties will not change because of change in Paraguay's support for Taiwan's UN bid," he noted.