Aids warning in China

A United Nations official in China has warned that the HIV/aids epidemic in the country could reach more than ten-million people by the year 2010.

The resident co-ordinator of UN operational activities in China, Arthur Holcombe, said the situation was potentially very serious and strong counter-measures were needed immediately.

Official government statistics had predicted a much slower spread of the virus, although the Health Minister Chen Minzhang has now told the state news agency that it was entering a period of rapid growth.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service