Chen Guizun, who is a member of China's National People's Congress, said that a law was needed to tackle both verbal and physical harassment of women at work.

He said assaulting a woman verbally or taking liberties with the opposite sex by using one's position and power was a crime and should be penalised.

The official Xinhua news agency said it was the first time that China's legislators had considered the issue of sexual harassment. It added that the Chinese have long been conservative about sexual matters - people who are harassed only complain about it in private.

Mr Chen said: "They have to bear the insult in silence."

Harassment 'quite common'

Wang Hong, a woman working in a government agency in Beijing, told the news agency that harassment in hospital or during a regular physical examination at work units was quite common.

She added that it was very difficult to bring the crime before a court because there was often no witness, or insufficient evidence.

Xinhua said the proposal for a new law had won wide support. It quotes another senior legislator, Hu Min, who said he was certain that sexual harassment would be put on the government's agenda, though there was no precedent to follow in coming up with penalties.

The BBC's Beijing Correspondent, Duncan Hewitt, says the debate seems to reflect the contradictory aspects of China's recent social changes: on the one hand, a growing awareness of women's issues, but also the return of traditional male attitudes which the revolution had sought to eradicate.

State media this year has highlighted the vulnerability of the growing number of women working as night-club hostesses, reporting the case of a rural woman who broke her back jumping from a window to avoid her boss's advances.