A senior legislator said in Beijing on Thursday that China will further strengthen its cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries on public health.

Han Qide, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, made the remarks in a meeting with delegates to an international symposium on public health security.

Han, a medicine master, said China attached great importance to the issue of public health security and had taken a series of measures to strengthen the construction of its public health system, medical cure system and health science and technology system.

"China is ready to further strengthen cooperation with the WHO and the governments of other countries, to make active efforts to deal with all kinds of paroxysmal public health incidents."

Kim Campbell, the former Canadian Prime Minister, said on behalf of all the delegates that the symposium was very "timely" and "excellent" as everyone in attendance was willing to share information and technology with China on public health.

Some 70 officials, experts and scholars from more than 10 countries were attending the two-day symposium that opened in Beijing on Thursday.

The symposium, "Public Health Security: China and the World", was jointly sponsored by the China Institute for International Strategic Studies and the Michael Eric Bosman Hotung Foundation.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2008)