The Chinese Government will spend 3.9 billion yuan (US$474 million) by the end of 2007 to help local governments fight AIDS and HIV, Health Vice-Minister Wang Longde said on Friday.

Also, China's central government won the praise of a United Nations official for its significant efforts in HIV/AIDS prevention of control.

"The Chinese central government has doubled its resources in fighting HIV/AIDS from 2003 to 2004," said Joel Rehnstrom, co-ordinator of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS' China office in Beijing.

He said that although he has seen a significant increase in the central government's political commitment, the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign nationwide needs more funds.

Liu Jiankui, a financial administrator with the Ministry of Health, said on Friday that he cannot confirm the monetary figure Wang gave at the UN's high-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York.

Last year, the central government allocated 3.7 billion yuan (US$450 million) to help local governments to improve public health, and around 700 million yuan (US$85 million) of it was used to fight HIV/AIDS.

Liu said the central government will earmark about 5 billion yuan (US$608 million) to improve public health, "but I am still not sure how much will be spent on HIV/AIDS prevention and control."

Since the second half of 2003, the central government has earmarked more funds each year to arm local hospitals with HIV testing facilities and offer patients free AIDS drugs.

Even so, the campaign against HIV/AIDS progressed in an uneven manner across China.

In Central China's Henan and Southwest China's Yunnan provinces, which were hardest hit and drew the most attention, governments are focusing mainly on dispensing more free medication to HIV/AIDS victims.

In other provinces, however, most emphasis is placed on enhancing public awareness and drawing more people from high-risk groups, including blood sellers, drug abusers, prostitutes and homosexuals, to free HIV testings.

It is that part of the campaign that needs more attention, Rehnstrom said.

An official with a farm in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where at least 16 people were infected by HIV through illegal blood transfusions between 1999 to 2004, said he had never heard of AIDS until those workers were confirmed with HIV last year because "it's such a small place."

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