TAIPEI (AFP) - - Workers mounted sandbag barriers and fishing boats returned to port as Taiwan braced for a pounding from Typhoon Fung-wong, which forecasters said was picking up momentum.

Taiwan is still reeling from storms earlier this month which left 20 people dead and six missing, and the Central Weather Bureau warned residents to take extra precautions against the oncoming typhoon.

Schools, offices and the financial markets will be closed Monday, and railway traffic and flights partially suspended, as the island braces itself.

At 1100 GMT, the eye of the typhoon was around 220 kilometres southeast of Hualien city in Taiwan's east, where it is expected to make landfall on Monday morning.

"All residents must heighten their vigilance as the typhoon continues to gain force and may bring in strong winds and heavy rains," a Central Weather Bureau forecaster said, adding that total rainfall may reach 900 millimetres (35 inches).

Coastguard officials said they were searching for a fishing boat with four Taiwanese and a Chinese man which has been missing since Friday near Matsu, a Taiwan-controlled island group off China's southeastern Fujian province.

Television images showed workers piling sandbags along a river in Wuje, a town in central Taiwan flooded by storm Kalmaegi earlier this month.

The Maokong Gondola, a popular lift system outside the capital Taipei, has shut down while ferry boat services between the southern city of Kaohsiung and Penghu Island in the Taiwan Strait were halted.

Thousands of fishing boats have also sought shelter in ports.

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