TAIPEI - Taiwan has loosened restrictions on Chinese journalists stationed on the island in the latest move to boost ties with the former rival, officials here said Wednesday.

Each Chinese media outlet from now on can deploy up to five reporters here and they are no longer required to notify Taiwanese authorities before travelling outside Taipei, said an official at the Mainland Affairs Council.

Besides, Chinese journalists can rent houses instead of having to stay in hotels for the duration of their deployment, she said.

It was not immediately clear if China would take steps to reciprocate.

Currently seven Chinese news outlets station journalists in Taipei on a maximum six-month rotational basis. The same rules apply for Taiwanese reporters on the mainland.

Taiwan lifted a decades-old ban on Chinese journalists in 2000, but the island's former pro-independence government denied official news agency Xinhua and the People's Daily newspaper access in 2005, accusing them of contributing to worsening ties between Taipei and Beijing.

In a goodwill gesture, the Beijing-friendly Taiwan administration of President Ma Ying-jeou readmitted the two organisations just one month after he took office last year.

Despite the increase in media exchanges between the two sides, China has maintained tight control on the reporting of sensitive Taiwan-focused issues.

China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force if the island ever moves to declare formal independence despite their split in 1949 after a civil war.