Taipei  - Taiwan and China's top museums inked a cooperation pact on Monday, but stopped short of reaching a deal on Taiwan sending its relics - taken from China in 1949 - on exhibition in China.

Under the pact, Beijing's Palace Museum will loan 37 pieces of artifacts to the exhibition on Emperor Yongzheng to be held in Taipei in October.

However, the agreement did not touch on the sensitive subject of holding joint exhibitions, or Taiwan's National Palace Museum loaning relics for exhibition in China.

Taiwan fears China would seize any relics loaned to them from its museums.

Taipei - Three Malaysian female backpackers and four Taiwanese were killed in a fire Monday at a Taipei hotel, police said.

The fire raged through the 36-year-old White Snow Hotel early in the morning.

A police officer identified the three Malaysian victims as 26-year-old Chin Seok Liang from Cheras, 37-year-old Lee Loo Yee from Puchong in Selangor, and Low Mee Sim from Penang. He said the three entered Taiwan on February 23 and booked for their return flight on Thursday.

Three Taiwanese senior citizens also were among the dead.

Taipei  - Taiwan stocks lost 2.88 per cent Monday, dragged down by Wall Street's sharp decline over US banking woes in previous trading, dealers said.

The main TAIEX index opened sharply lower and extended its heavy losses to close at 4,425.83, down 131.32 points, or 2.88 per cent.

Dealers said US banking fears put local finance shares under heavy pressure, and reports about lender HSBC's plan to scale back its US consumer finance operations further dampened the market sentiment.

Taipei  - The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, is expected to announce that it has won an import contract from Intel Corp, a Taiwan newspaper reported.

According to the United Daily News, TSMC has won an Intel contract to supply mobile Internet device (MID) and the Intel Atom processors to Intel.

Intel and TSMC are scheduled to announce a "strategic alliance" in a joint news conference at 1700 GMT in Santa Clara, California, the paper quoted an unnamed industry source as saying.

Taipei  - The curator of the Beijing Palace Museum arrived in Taiwan Sunday for a cultural exchange, highlighting China's battle to recover its ancient treasures seized by foreign countries.

Zheng Xinmiao, director of the Beijing Palace Museum, is leading a ten-member delegation to visit the National Palace Museum of Taipei, which holds 650,000 pieces of art brought to Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalist government when it lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile in 1949.

Zheng said his visit is to promote exchanges with Taiwan's National Palace Museum, which were agreed upon when National Palace Museum Director Chou Kung-shin visited the Beijing Palace Museum last month.

Kaohsiung, Taiwan/Taipei  - Dozens of Taiwan pro-independence activists Saturday disrupted a speech by President Ma Ying-jeou at a memorial ceremony for victims killed in a a 1947 massacre.

"Step down, Ma Ying-jeou," "Ma Ying-jeou, persecutor" and "Long live Taiwan," the activists shouted, unfurling protest banners at various spots of the ceremony venue at a park in the southern city of Kaohsiung.