Taipei - Taiwan Saturday welcomed a US decision to remove the island from the so-called Special 301 watch list of countries failing to protect intellectual property rights.

"This shows our efforts to stamp out violation of intellectual property rights have borne fruit," said Wang Mei-hua, director of the Intellectual Property Office under the Economics Ministry.

She said the government will do all it can to uphold protection of IPRs in Taiwan.

Taipei- Having failed to reach its target of receiving 4 million foreign visitors in 2008, Taiwan plans to reach that target by the end of 2009, an official said Friday.

In 2008, Taiwan received 3.84 million foreign visitors.

Of the total, 1.77 million were tourists, up 7.69 per cent from 2007, while 881,431 were business visitors, down 5.3 per cent from 2007, Janice Lai, director of the Tourism Bureau, said.

Taipei - A spokesman for Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said Friday that nothing from the current government had been stolen and leaked to China by an employee in the presidential office.

Prosecutors detained Wang Jen-ping and former parliament aide Chen Pin-jen early Thursday following questioning over their alleged roles in selling state secrets to China.

"As far as we know, the allegations happened before the handover of power to President Ma, not after he took office on May 20," said spokesman Wang Yu-chi.

Taipei  - Taiwan and China are expected to launch regular passengers and cargo flights in July, ending Taipei's six-decade ban on cross-strait air links with the mainland, a newspaper said Friday.

The Commercial Times, quoting an unnamed official, said Taipei and Beijing plan to hold talks in late May to discuss opening regular flights and sign a pact.

The pact will endorse regular flights between Taiwan and China and allow each other's planes to fly on to other countries from Taiwan or China, the paper said.

Taipei - China Southern Airlines opened a representative office in Taipei Thursday, becoming the first Chinese airline to gain a foothold in the Taiwan market.

Si Xianmin, chairman of China's largest airline, opened the office in Taipei's trendy Minsheng East Road. Taiwan transport officials and airline representatives attended the opening ceremony.

The office is aimed at promoting China Southern's business links with Taiwan and will not sell plane tickets, which are sold by Taiwan travel agencies.

Taipei - Taiwan on Thursday began to check its security firewall after an employee in the presidential office and his friend were detained on suspicion of spying for China.

"President Ma Ying-jeou has instructed us to cooperate with the judicial investigation and to examine the integrity of our staff," Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi told a news conference.

He said that at this stage, the presidential office treats the incident as a judicial case, and refused to discuss details.