The first Mid-Autumn Festival charter flight from Taiwan arrived in Shanghai on Friday, marking another step towards establishing regular cross-Straits air links.

The charter flight of Taiwan-based Eva Airways arrived in Shanghai on Friday afternoon with 308 passengers on board. The flight, which was almost filled to capacity, returned to Taipei later on Friday.

The flight signalled the extension of the cross-Straits charter flight service, which used to be restricted to the Spring Festival.

Eva Airways has prepared moon-cakes and other traditional Mid-Autumn Festival refreshments for passengers, said Liu Yingjun, the airline's public relations officer.

Eva Airways had scheduled another round-trip charter flight between Taipei and Shanghai on October 8, Liu added.

Together with Eva Airways, 11 other airlines from the mainland and Taiwan will run a total of 24 round-trip charter flights until October 13.

The flights will run from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on the mainland to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan Province.

The charter services are in line with a landmark agreement reached between Taiwan and the mainland, which also allows similar flights for other traditional Chinese holidays including the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Spring Festival.

The two sides exchanged non-stop charter flights for the first time in more than 50 years during the Spring Festival in January and February 2005.

In 2005, 5,877 passengers took Spring Festival charter flights, while the number soared to 27,276 this year.

In a related development, Taiwan's "legislature" on Friday decided to debate another opposition-backed motion to recall "president" Chen Shui-bian amid rising public discontent with the scandal-plagued leader.

By a vote of 106 to 82, the "Legislative Yuan" agreed to consider a measure referring Chen's ouster to a public referendum, "speaker" Wang Jin-pyng announced. A final vote on the motion will take place on October 13, he said.

The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has appealed to ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) "lawmakers" to back the motion in order to give people a chance to be heard through the ballot box.

It said the vote would be the most effective way to end three weeks of street demonstrations demanding Chen's resignation over a series of corruption scandals.

For the motion to succeed, it needs two-thirds support in the 221-seat "legislature." Like the first attempt in June, it will most likely fail because Chen's DPP remains vehemently opposed to it.

The ruling party has 85 "lawmakers," while the opposition alliance controls 112 seats.

Were the "legislature" to pass the recall motion, a majority vote of at least 50 per cent of the electorate would be necessary to oust Chen.

He would be replaced by "vice-president" Annette Lu.

Editor: Yan