Castro, now in power for almost 45 years, turned 77 earlier this week. As the longest-ruling head of government, the aging leader has built a communist state in the US' backyard.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell wished Castro a happy birthday on Wednesday, saying that he should have marked the occasion by retiring.

"It's time for him to go," Powell said in an interview with the Univision Spanish-language television network.

Cabinet unveils cross-strait links plan

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS: A year in the making, the government's design for future transportation links with China compromises between economic and security concerns

By Melody Chen

STAFF REPORTER

The government's yearlong assessment of the impact of direct cross-strait transportation was published yesterday laying down basic guidelines for direct air and sea transportation between Taiwan and China.

The Cabinet, which started assessing the impact of direct cross-strait transportation and planning-related measures last September on President Chen Shui-bian's  instruction, released a summary of the assessment report at a press conference.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun and senior officials from six government agencies, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Council of Economic Planning and Development and the National Security Council, announced the main findings of the assessment.

MOTC Vice Minister Tsai Duei said that CKS International Airport and the Kaohsiung International Airport will be the airports for direct flights to and from China.

Tsai said China may choose any of its international airports for direct air links with Taiwan.

According to a survey conducted by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the first five mainland China airports Taiwanese airlines wish to be opened for direct air links are Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Xiamen and Shenzhen.

One of the basic principles of direct air links, however, is that, because of security concerns there would be no direct, point-to-point cross-strait flights.

Aircraft flying between Taiwan and China will still have to detour through the airspace of a third territory, probably either Hong Kong or Japan's Ryukyu Islands, before arriving at their destination, Tsai said. Only the current requirement that planes actually land in the third territory will be lifted.

There was no set agenda for the order in which routes should be opened to cargo and passengers, Tsai said, contradicting remarks by Chen earlier this week according to which the government intended to open cargo routes first.

Either scheduled flights or charter flights could be operated, Tsai said.

As for the choice of harbors for direct sea transportation, Tsai said according to Taiwanese businessmen's needs and operational considerations, the current four international harbors can be open for direct sea transportation between the two sides. But Taiwan has to negotiate with China about which harbor or harbors the latter is willing to open for direct sea transportation links, Tsai said.

The report also suggested the two sides negotiate and settle on a nomenclature to use for the routes, to prevent confusion about whether they are "domestic" routes, as China might seek to claim.

"The materialization of direct cross-strait transportation depends mainly on the improvement of cross-strait interaction," said MAC Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.

The report cautioned that China has, however, so held onto its intransigent position that all cross-strait routes are "domestic" in nature and that Taiwan abide by the "one-China" principle in its treatment of cross-strait transportation.

"If we submit to China's political positioning in handling direct cross-strait transportation, our national sovereignty will be severely damaged and international status lowered," the report said.

But it is not just a political question. Whether shipping links are defined as domestic or not has significance for the international carriers since it may severely limit which shipping operators may take part in what are expected to be extremely lucrative routes.

"No political positioning should be involved in promoting direct cross-strait transportation. All related issues should be negotiated on an equal and dignified basis," Yu said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Taipei Major Ma Ying-jeou said he will continue fighting for an opportunity for Taipei's Sungshan Airport, designated for domestic flights only, to become an airport for direct cross-strait transportation.

"It is the business sector's wish for the domestic airport to be included in the direct cross-strait transportation plan," the staunchly pro-unification Ma said.

WHO looks into SARS-animal link in southern China

DETECTIVE WORK: An international team was snooping around in markets and visiting research laboratories to track down the origin of the atypical pneumonia virus

AFP , BEIJING

"They want to see what studies have been done and to see what the situation is like at breeding farms and at markets."－Alan Schnur, World Health Organization official based in Beijing

An international group of experts was in southern China yesterday to study links between the deadly SARS virus and animals amid fears that the disease could reappear as winter approaches.

"Their main mission is to collect information," Alan Schnur, head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) communicable disease office in Beijing, said.

"They want to see what studies have been done and to see what the situation is like at breeding farms and at markets," Schnur said.

Scientists have said viruses carried by wildlife in Guangdong Province, where SARS originated last November, are nearly identical to the coronavirus responsible for the disease.

But a final conclusion on which animal -- or indeed whether it was an animal at all -- was responsible for transmitting it to humans, has not been made.

The team in Guangdong consists of 14 experts from the WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN and China's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Science and Agriculture.

Schnur said studies in Hong Kong and China had showed the presence of the virus in rodent-like civet cats and other species but "whether it originated with them or whether they picked it up somewhere else, we don't know that yet."

"This is one objective of the team in Guangdong -- to pull together all the strands and see where we need to go from here."

The team are expected to visit markets, restaurants, a wildlife farm, a pig farm and the disease-control bureau before heading to Beijing for talks with Chinese officials.

Schnur warned there was no quick fix to the problem and said SARS could resurface as the weather conditions deemed suitable for its presence draw nearer.

"These sorts of things take time. It is not possible to predict when it [the source] might be isolated. We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

"No one is complacent at this stage. Several scientists have said it could come back, others have said it would have come back by now if it was going to return.

"We take all this very seriously. We are working with the Ministry of Health to set up processes so that if there are any related cases they can be jumped on rapidly."

SARS was carried from Guangdong to Hong Kong by a badly infected Chinese doctor, sparking a global outbreak that struck down more than 8,000 people and left more than 800 dead in 32 countries.

Some 349 of the fatalities and 5,327 of the infections were in China, with Beijing hardest hit.