China's Vice Premier Hui Liangyu has urged that persistent efforts should be taken in doing a good job of fighting against bird flu until complete success is achieved in this regard.

Hui, who is also head of the China national headquarters for the prevention and control of highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu), made the remark at the fourth meeting of the headquarters.

He heard reports made by members of the special group of the State Council for supervising the prevention of bird flu who had gone to the areas where cases of outbreak of bird flu have been found to do investigations.

Hui called for greater efforts to curb the spread of bird flu and prevent it infecting humans.

"Measures should be taken to spur the development of the poultry industry and reduce the losses caused by the outbreak of bird flu to the maximum extent," said Hui, who also urged stepped-up supervision of the efforts to prevent bird flu and solve problems found in the prevention work.

The vice premier also urged that a good job be done in agricultural and rural work, helping farmers to raise their incomes while making a success of the fight against bird flu.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2004)