TAIPEI, May 30 (AP) -- An American business group in Taiwan on Tuesday called on the island to relax trade barriers with China, saying that measures like direct flights were necessary to insure Taiwanese economic integration into the international community.

The appeal by the American Chamber of Commerce echoed comments made last week by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia, who said that unless Taiwanese trade restrictions toward China were relaxed, Taiwanese businesses would suffer.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei, chamber president Tom Johnson said the absence of direct air and sea links across the Taiwan Strait was deterring foreign business people from operating in Taiwan.

"Without a free flow of people and goods across the strait, Taiwan-based companies find it hard to implement regional business plans," he said. "Taiwan government officials may not fully appreciate the extent to which time is a precious commodity for business people."

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949, but economic exchanges between the sides have flourished since the late 1990s. Taiwanese companies have invested a total of about US$100 billion on the mainland (€78 billion), and annual two-way trade now reaches about US$80 billion.

However, Taiwan-based business people often complain about the added costs incurred by having to move both goods and people through a third point _ usually Hong Kong _ rather than having direct links between the island of 23 million people and the mainland, 160 kilometers (100 miles) to the west.

They say that flying between Taipei and Shanghai _ a hub for the several hundred thousand Taiwanese business people estimated to work on the mainland -- can take seven or eight hours, more than twice the time required by direct flights.

The independence-leaning government of President Chen Shui-bian says that direct air and sea links would tighten the island's economic integration with the mainland, and reduce its flexibility in the event of any future political or military confrontation.

China views Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened the use of force if it acts to formalize its de facto independence.