Talks vital to renegotiating an air-links agreement between Taiwan and Hong Kong will likely again be put off because of a deadlock over who should represent the two sides at the discussions.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration is preparing a request for a three-month extension of the 1996 agreement, which is due to expire on Dec. 31, according to local media reports.
Officials at the administration said that a period for the extension had not been confirmed.
The talks have broken down over Taipei's insistence that a new deal be reached through official discussions between the two governments.
Beijing wants to use the 1996 model for the talks, whereby negotiations were non-governmental with the airlines authorized by their respective governments to hash out the details.
Executives from Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific and Dragon Air reportedly told the Mainland Affairs Council in a Taipei visit last week that no official participation in the discussions by government agencies would be permitted.
In an attempt to speed up events, it is believed that once the Hong Kong airlines receive the extension proposal they will insert a new condition seeking a final date for discussions to be held, the reports said.
The current agreement, which was originally due to expire on June 12, was extended until Dec. 31.
The government has previously allayed fears that air links between the two sides could be cut over the issue, with senior officials saying a solution could be found within days once official dialogue is resumed.
While agreeing that it was unlikely air links would be cut over the issue, Philip Wickham, an airline analyst with ING Barings in Hong Kong, said the political wrangling was casting a pall over the region's busiest route and could continue for many months to come.
"It's been completely dragged into the political labyrinth between Beijing and Taipei," he said.
Wickham pointed out that air service agreements between countries are usually negotiated by their respective governments and that the agreement between Hong Kong and Beijing was conducted between the relevant official agencies.
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