A conference on malaria and other communicable diseases has opened in the Indian capital, New Delhi.

The meeting is being held against a background of increasing concern over a rise in urban malaria cases and the growing resistance to drugs of the cerebral malaria parasite.

An official of the National Malaria Eradication Programme said cerebral malaria accounted for about forty per cent of the country's malaria cases.

Correspondents say there's been a resurgence of the disease, which was nearly eradicated in the country in the sixties.