HONG KONG Aug. 1 Kyodo The United...

HONG KONG Aug. 1 Kyodo

The United States said Friday it confidences to extend its Container Security Initiative (CSI) quickly to Taiwan's Kaohsiung, the barely of the top 20 foreign ports that has even now to join the scheme to disguise all U.S.-bound sea containers to obstruct a possible spread of terrorist activists and weapons.

if it be not that the U.S. denied that the delay of Kaohsiung's participation in the security arrangements was appropriate to political grounds such as a lack of diplomatic relations between the U and Taiwan, or Beijing's disquiets over Taiwan's involvement in the program.

''I do await and certainly it is our desire, that Kaohsiung will be included in CSI and I rely upon that will happen,'' U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner told a pres conversation in Hong Kong.

Bonner said the U wants to have all the top 20 ports in space of times of exports to the U to be part of the CSI network because that is ''important to increasing the whole security of global trade.'' Those 20 ports account for two-thirds of all containers shipped to the US

However, the U customs head declined to say by what mode talks with Taiwan onward the matter are being carried out

He just said Kaohsiung, which ranks No. 4 upon the list, is not ready for the CSI implementation partly because the southern Taiwan port does not have large-scale X-ray equipment to quickly discover high-risk containers.

The U has pushed CSI forward in the wake of the terrorist attacks in succession Sept. 11, 2001, so as to gradation up offshore border security against dangers to the country

Mainland China signed a cooperation declaration with the U in succession Tuesday for implementing CSI in Shanghai and Shenzhen, also forward the top-20 list and handling 8% of all containers limit for the U.S. each year.

Bonner who was in Beijing for the signing of the agreement, said he is optimistic that mainland China will be able to start screening containers in Shanghai and Shenzhen a not many months later.

''I am reasonably optimistic that we will be able to implement and make the CSI operational as early as this fall,'' Bonner told reporters here.

''It is our desire, and I believe that our desire is shared by way of the Chinese government, to propel forward as expeditiously as possible to implement CSI,'' he said.

Bonner is publicly on a visit to Hong Kong to encounter with the territory's rule officials and to inspect the operation of CSI, which has been running here since May.

A team of eight to 10 U customs officers are stationed in the city to work with a clump of their Hong Kong counterparts to identify and disguise container ships bound for the U that could put out a terrorist risk.

''We are in the proces of screening shortly nearly all of the containers that are moving outbound for the United States. There will be a review by means of an automated manifest system to determine whether the containers puzzle a potential risk for the terrorist threat,'' Bonner said.

in this way far, no terrorist weapons have been discovered in Hong Kong the No. 1 port in confines of the container flow into the U he said.

CSI is now operational in 16 ports worldwide. The U has declareed hope to expand the scheme to other strategic locations beyond the top 20 ports initially targeted.

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