BEIJING/TAIPEI, March 30 (Xinhua) - The Chinese mainland is willing to form with Taiwan a regular mechanism of cross-Strait cooperation in disaster early warning and emergency response, a mainland spokeswoman said Wednesday.

It is necessary for both sides to jointly battle natural disasters to protect lives and property of people across the Taiwan Strait, said Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, at a press conference in Beijing.

The mainland hopes both sides can work together in this regard, she added.

Answering a question raised by a reporter, Fan said mainland authorities had given much attention to the safety of the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

"The channels for both sides to conduct exchanges on technologies to ensure safety of the peaceful use of nuclear energy have always been open," Fan said.

Also on Wednesday, Taiwan authorities said it had accredited the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to conduct preliminary talks with the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) for cooperation on nuclear safety, particularly an information sharing mechanism during emergencies.

Lai Shin-yuan, chief of Taiwan authorities' mainland affairs commission, said that nuclear safety was an urgent issue that concerns welfare and safety of people both in the mainland and Taiwan, and the authorities would spare no effort to promote such cooperation with the mainland.

If consensus could be achieved during the preliminary talks, nuclear security cooperation could be a priority for the seventh round of formal talks between leaders of the SEF and the ARATS, Lai said.

Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou said on Tuesday that Taiwan seeks more active cooperation with the mainland to prevent nuclear disasters.