Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Lin Chong-pin (
The report, citing unnamed sources, said the purpose of the trip would be to brief US officials on the new government's policy on cross-strait relations.
While Washington has always played a role in cross-strait ties, it has become a routine mission for high-ranking MAC officials to relay Taiwan's cross-strait policy to Washington in person.
At the top of Lin's agenda is the expected admission into the WTO of both Taiwan and China later this year.
Analysts say Taiwan's and China's WTO admission will impinge upon the relationship between Washington, Taipei and Beijing and in the face of China's continuing military threats, US involvement in the region will be increasingly important to Taiwan.
No formal meetings have been scheduled between Lin and Department of State officials in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs, but there could be occasions "when they could encounter," each other, according to the report.
Taipei and Washington have kept unofficial ties since the US switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.
Government leaders from Taiwan are prohibited from making official visits to the US -- American officials usually meet their Taiwan counterparts on unofficial occasions only.
In parallel visits to different parts of the world, the MAC's former vice chairman Wu An-chia (吳安家) and Yen Wan-chin (顏萬進), director of the DPP's China Affairs Committe, are to visit Europe and Japan respectively.
Their goals will be similar to Lin's -- to provide an explanation of the new Taiwan government's cross-strait policy.
Relations with Beijing have been strained since President Chen Shui-bian's (
Beijing had demanded that Taiwan accept the "one-China" principle as a precondition to cross-strait negotiations.
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