"Negotiations have almost come to a conclusion, " said Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and Taiwan's top negotiator with China in the absence of official ties.

According to Chiang, the formal signing of the financial MOU, which will outline financial regulatory systems to pave the way for the two sides to reciprocally approve operations by their financial institutions, could take place soon.

Stock market surged

Taiwan's stock market surged more than 100 points in the first half of Friday's trading session Friday after Vice Premier Eric Liluan Chu said a breakthrough in cross-strait MOU talks would come in the next two days.

The market's weighted price index lost some ground later in the session to close at 7,463.05 points mainly because of selling pressure around the 7,500-point psychological barrier.

Chiang said he believes that the surge in the benchmark Taiex was related to progress in MOU talks.

Technical details

He further said officials from both sides of the Taiwan Strait are negotiating technical details regarding agreements to be signed at the upcoming fourth rounds of high-level cross-strait talks, including cooperation on fishing crews, inspection and quarantine for cross-strait agricultural trade, and avoidance of double taxation.

The fourth round of cross-strait talks will take place in central Taiwan's Taichung City in December.

Chiang also said the fifth round of talks to be held next year will touch on the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement as well as intellectual property rights protection, green energy development and cultural, information and education exchanges.