BEIJING (AP) -- China has promised Taiwanese investors on the mainland up to $95 billion in loans from state banks as it tries to build commercial ties with the island.

The official Xinhua News Agency says the director of the Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office made the announcement at a weekend forum on relations between the mainland and Taiwan.

The two sides separated in 1949 amid civil war and have no official ties but are rapidly building investment and trade relations.

The official said China's four major state banks would extend 600 billion yuan ($95 billion) in credit over the next three to four years to Taiwanese-owned businesses on the mainland.