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TAIPEI, Feb 12 (AFP) - The United States is set to sign a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) with Taiwan in September, a report here said Wednesday.

The accord, under which Taiwan-made aeronautical and sophisticated machinery products could be granted US accreditation, would help pry the door open for Taiwanese manufacturers into the US market, the United Daily News said.

Officials from Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) declined to comment on the report.

In light of the political sensitiveness of the agreement, Taiwan and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States have conducted their negotiations secretly over the past six years, the paper said.

As the US is the world's largest manufacturer of aeronautical products, there is strong opposition from US industrialists against the BASA signing between FAA and foreign countries, it said.

In addition, China has also tried every means to obstruct the United States from signing the accord with Taiwan which it regards as part of territory awaiting to be unified, the paper cited an unnamed official as saying.

According to Taiwan's CAA, there are currently over 100 manufacturers of aeronautic parts, equipment and accessories in Taiwan with annual sales reaching 30 billion Taiwan dollars (860 million US).

While up to 90 percent of the sales were related to domestic military aircraft and maintenance, the parts and accessories for commercial planes accounted for only three billion dollars annually because of a lack of BASA certification, official said.

According to the FAA, the BASAs provide for bilateral cooperation in aviation areas including maintenance, flight operations, and environmental certification, in addition to airworthiness certification.

The bilateral agreements facilitate the reciprocal airworthiness certification of civil aeronautical products imported or exported between two signatory countries.

The US has so far concluded 27 Bilateral Airworthiness Agreements (BAA) and five BASAs between the FAA and its counterpart civil aviation authorities. In 1996 BASA was introduced to replace BAA.

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