China and Mexico Monday agreed to send chartered flights to each other's countries to fetch their citizens, dampening a row that stemmed from Beijing's quarantine of Mexican nationals in the country amid the global H1N1 flu outbreak.

The second batch of Chinese humanitarian materials to tackle influenza A/H1N1,including face masks, eye masks, gloves, disinfecting devices and clinical thermometers, is loaded onto a chartered China Southern Airlines aircraft at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Monday, May 4 2009. [Photo: xinhua.com]

On Sunday, China Southern Airlines canceled a chartered flight meant to pick up more than 200 Chinese citizens stranded in Mexico as it could not secure landing permission from Mexican airports.

The plane finally left Guangzhou for Mexico City at 10 pm Monday and is expected to return to Shanghai at 9 am Wednesday, the airline said.

The Mexican government Monday accused China of singling out its citizens for forced isolation despite the fact they showed no symptoms of the virus.

A Mexican embassy official said that there were nearly 70 Mexicans quarantined across China - in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Some had traveled to China aboard the same flight that carried an infected Mexican man - Asia's first confirmed H1N1 flu case - who is now in a Hong Kong hospital.

Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa called China's actions "unjustified" and warned Mexicans against visiting China.

China rejected the charge, saying it was not discriminating against Mexicans and called for Mexico to be "objective and calm".

"The measures are not targeted at Mexican citizens, and are not discriminatory. This is purely a question of health inspection and quarantine," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said yesterday.

"China understands the Mexican side's concern for the rights and interests of its citizens in China, and hopes to jointly address the epidemic situation," he said.

The WHO's representative in China, Hans Troeddson, said yesterday the measures taken by Beijing are proper and do not violate current regulations.

"It's really up to each country and should be in accordance with their own regulations and legislation on public health and protection of the population," he said.

Zhong Nanshan, a renowned medical expert and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also defended the quarantine measures.

Medical circles are still unclear over the pathology of the H1N1 virus, he said. "We're not sure whether H1N1 carriers transfer the virus before showing symptoms," Zhong said.

As such, quarantine for a certain period is necessary to check whether those monitored are infected, he said.

Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said Mexican authorities' criticism of China's quarantine moves could slightly affect their relations.

"If the flu had broken out in China and other countries had taken similar action, I don't think Beijing would have complained," he said, pointing out that China has also quarantined its own citizens returning from Mexico.

"(But) we can understand the Mexican reaction, which has been affected by their domestic situation. Not many will mention it after two or three weeks," he said.

Most Chinese online users also support the decision to quarantine Mexicans.

A poll by major information portal Sina.com showed that 92.5 percent of 4,263 online users said the quarantine was "a necessary preventive method and had nothing to do with discrimination".

China offered $5 million in aid to Mexico last Wednesday - $1 million in cash and $4 million in medical supplies - the first country to send aid after the epidemic broke out. Mexican President Felipe Calderon received the Air China chartered flight carrying the supplies on Friday.

The second batch of aid material reached yesterday.

In China, the authorities have beefed up preventive measures.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday although the mainland has not yet reported any cases of H1N1, there is a possibility of the virus making its way.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said yesterday six more supervision teams had been sent to Shandong, Hebei, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces to work with local authorities in epidemic prevention. It sent five teams to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in late April.

The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday raised its tally of confirmed human H1N1 cases to 1,003 with 26 confirmed deaths. Twenty countries and regions have reported laboratory-confirmed cases so far. Mexico, the center of the outbreak, has reported 590 cases and 25 deaths from the virus.