Summing up the Group's past three-day meeting in Hong Kong, Cyril assured the public at a post-meeting press conference that he and his colleagues would beyond doubts remain independent and accountable to the people of Hong Kong despite some people questioning their independence.

"We have been appointed by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong on behalf of the people of Hong Kong. And it is to the people of Hong Kong that we will be accountable.

"We are certainly determined to be and that is my pledge to you," he said.

Cyril said the Group had looked at a number of issues in the past three days. One of these was the question of whether anything could have been done to avoid the outbreak in Hong Kong given the intelligence which was available in February.

They were also concerned about the severity of the outbreak at the Prince of Wales Hospital and issues concerning capacity of the system, infection control, protection of staff and patients as well as staff training of the public hospital system.

Cyril added that the Group was still gathering information and intelligence about the SARS outbreak and it was too early to draw any conclusion or make recommendations at this stage.

Responding to media questions, Yeoh Eng-kiong, Chairman and Convener of the SARS Expert Committee, said the Hong Kong government hoped to receive independent and objective views from the international experts so that lessons could be learnt and HongKong could better prepare its public health system for any future outbreaks.

Also speaking at the press conference, Zhong Nanshan, a mainland medical expert being on the frontline against SARS, said there was an urgent need to strengthen the connection between Hong Kong and Guangdong province in the prevention of infectious diseases.

He said both formal or informal communication network should beset up and it would be of great help between the two places to look out for those unknown diseases.

He also looked forward to closer cooperation with Hong Kong in the areas of studies to identify the animal reservoir where the pathogen was suspected to have come from, and the integration of traditional Chinese medicine with western medicine.

The international experts began tightly scheduled three-day meeting in Hong Kong on June 26. Since then, it had met with Hospital Authority board members and senior executives, Department of Health officials, frontline health care workers, legislators, and medical and health experts.

The Hospital Management and Administration Group will join the Public Health Group in a plenary session in August to further their study and investigation on the SARS outbreak.

The SARS Expert Committee is expected to complete its work and submit a report to the Chief Executive in September.

(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2003)