Mobile Manufacturers Forum, whose members are the world's top 11 handset makers, said Monday that it hoped to persuade the Chinese government to adopt the international handset safety standard by the end of this year.

"We have negotiated with the related bureau recently and we hope it will kick off the new standard soon," said Michael Milligan, MMF's secretary general.

The criteria include whether mobile phone usage will result in cancers as well as whether handsets affect users' brain activity and sleep.

The MMF says all handsets produced by its members comply with the standard, authorized by the World Health Organization.

China has no specific standard in this sector, causing consumer concerns about the health problems associated with talking through handsets.

The Ministry of Information Industry, the state-level information technology authority, is considering issuing a new standard, according to local reports.

The ministry was not available for comment yesterday.

"It is not necessary for people to worry about the problems now, at least about our members' products," said Zhou Chongguang, MMF's science adviser and a 30-year veteran in this sector.

"The influence of the handsets is limited whether they are global system for mobile communications (GSM) or code division multiple access (CDMA) handsets."

MMF's members include Nokia, Motorola Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Siemens AG and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Co.

MMF aims to attract more players to target the world's biggest mobile market by subscriber population.

The ministry reported recently that the Chinese mobile population had reached 282.32 million by the end of February, with a penetration rate of 20.9 percent.

Ningbo Bird Corp, China's biggest handset maker, said it met MMF in Beijing last week and had some interest in joining it.

(eastday.com April 6, 2004)