As an international metropolis, Beijing had a strong desire to strengthen international cooperation, especially with the WHO in the fight against SARS, said Liu Qi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPC.

"From April 27, Beijing Municipal Government will provide more details about SARS, including the figures of SARS patients in each district, the names of isolated hospitals and residential buildings, the number of isolated people," said Liu, also head of Beijing's SARS control working group.

Considering WHO's valuable experience with SARS, Beijing government welcomed WHO experts to join in improving its disease prevention plan and hoped the WHO could recommend expert advisers for Beijing's SARS control working group, who would be invited to attend relevant meetings, said Liu.

The local government would publish SARS information and knowledge in various ways to satisfy different demands. Local citizen were usually knowledgeable about good hygiene and kept a close watch on the latest SARS information, while many rural laborers in Beijing needed basic hygiene knowledge and medical services, said Wang Qishan, acting major of Beijing.

Wang stressed that the Beijing government sincerely hoped for helpful advice from the WHO, which was experienced in helping developing countries, especially effective guidance in cutting off the infection channels of SARS and internationally-accepted prevention standards of infectious diseases.

"We would like to share SARS information with WHO so as to improve the transparency and efficiency of our information publicity," said Wang.

Wang also proposed to establish a hotline between both sides oropen an office for WHO experts to improve cooperation.

Bekedam told Xinhua after the meeting that he had seen that the Chinese government is very serious about SARS and had put very senior people in charge of dealing with SARS, and the WHO is looking forward to working together with departments concerned in fighting SARS.

He stressed that it was very important to communicate well with the public, with the media and with the international community about what the government is doing.

He said he and his colleagues are impressed by what Beijing has been doing, but he thought that improvement is still needed in communication with the public, so as to let the latter have a better understanding of what is happening, a better understanding of what the figures mean, through which they will also know how toprotect themselves.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2003)