Chiang said 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.

Taiwan's stock market surged more than 100 points in the first half of Friday's trading session Friday after Vice Premier Eric 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 TAIE-- was related to progress in MOU talks.

Chiang 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 noted that the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement, intellectual property protection, green energy development, and cultural, information and education exchanges will be discussed at the fifth round of cross-strait talks next year.

Also yesterday, Sean Chen, chairman of the Cabinet-level Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) said that he's optimistic that the cross-strait financial MOU would be inked in a couple of days.

Chen made the remarks when asked by reporters to interpret the remarks by Friday Vice Premier Eric Chu that there would be good news about the signing of the financial MOU in the next two days.