More than 400 journalists from some 110 news organizations worldwide flocked to a southern China town to cover the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), slated to open Saturday.  

The coming of so many journalists from around the world indicated the growing influence of the forum of senior politicians, scholars and business people, an official with the secretariat said Thursday.

Among the journalists, over 300 are from 77 Chinese media organizations in the Chinese mainland, including major newspapers, news agencies, television and radio stations and about 100 are from overseas, according to Lu Guangjin, a senior coordinator of the BFA secretariat.

In the previous BFA annual meetings, news reporters were mainly from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

"This year, quite a few are from Southeast Asian countries and major world-class news organizations such as the Associated Press," Lu said.

Chinese major media including China Central Television, China National Radio, China Radio International and key websites such as Xinhuanet (www.xinhuanet.com) and the China Economic Net (www.ce.cn) will broadcast the event live.

This is the third annual conference of the BFA, located in Boao Town in the east of China's southernmost island province of Hainan, since its founding in 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2004)