TAIPEI, March 18 (AFP) - The Dalai Lama's forthcoming visit to Taiwan may put back the establishment of the island's first direct shipping links with China in almost in five decades, the Commercial Times daily said Tuesday.

Li Xin, deputy director of the Taiwan affairs office at China's communications ministry was quoted saying the mainland would postpone the announcement of a list of shipping firms allowed to operate the direct route.

The delay was due to "recent bad weather across the Taiwan Strait," Li was quoted saying, ion a reference to the six-day visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Li warned the island not to "make trouble out of nothing." But Li added that the mainland side would finish screening applications submitted by eight Taiwanese and four mainland shipping firms before mid-April, it added.

The Dalai Lama will start his first visit to the nationalist island Saturday at the invitation of a Taiwanese Buddhist organization. China has already warned against the trip.

In the past few days, Taipei had been rife with reports that China would announce licenses for six Taiwanese and four mainland shippers this week.

In late January, shipping representatives from Taiwan and China reached an accord in Hong Kong to allow freighters from both sides to shuttle between the southern Taiwan port of Kaohsiung and Xiamen and Fuzhou in the southeast Chinese province of Fujian, which faces Taiwan.

But Kaohsiung will serve only as a transshipment port for foreign cargo destined for the mainland and third countries. Direct cross-strait exchanges of merchandise are still banned.

Foreign-owned vessels are not eligible to run the routes between Kaohsiung and the two mainland ports as all three ports are considered domestic by Beijing, which views Taiwan as renegade province.

Taiwan shipping concerns said gaining access across the 300-kilometre (186-mile) stretch of water would reduce their operating costs by 30 to 50 percent, and increase competitiveness.

Taiwan's Nationalist government currently forbids direct exchanges of mail, visitors and goods across the strait, allowing contacts only via third countries and territories, mainly Hong Kong.