China's legislature on Friday signed a cooperation program with the UNDP to "strengthen a harmonious legal environment for a successful coordinated response to HIV/AIDS in China".

The program, described as "flagship", was signed by the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Commission of the National People's Congress (NPC), the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Li Honggui, a member of the NPC Commission, said the program would help build an enabling legal and policy environment in China to combat AIDS and enhance the policy implementation at all levels, which was "significant in the overall AIDS response in China".

Subinay Nandy, UNDP China Country Director, said the three-year program aims to beef up the cross-sector leadership capacity of 500 local legislators from five provinces -- northwestern Gansu and Qinghai, southeastern Zhejiang, eastern Shandong and northern Hebei -- to create a favorable AIDS legislation basis.

The program, costing a total budget of 1 million U.S. dollars split equally between the UNDP and Chinese government, will "review and provide recommendations on AIDS laws and regulations at national level and assist strengthening provincial legislation", Nandy said.

"At the national level, China has done an excellent job in developing policies and legislation to support its efforts to respond to AIDS. However, more work remains to translate into effective and timely local level action," he said.

Nandy said he was "proud of China's efforts" made in the field of policy-making and legislation to prevent AIDS discrimination, such as the regulation on AIDS prevention and treatment, promulgated by the State council last year, and the national action plan (2006-2010) for AIDS containment, prevention and care.

Bernhard Schwartlander, UNAIDS Country Coordinator, told reporters that China needs to take the response to HIV to provincial, county and community levels and "translate policies into action".

Fighting HIV concerns "leadership" which was in line with the theme of this year's World AIDS Day that calls for "leadership", Schwartlander said.

By the end of October 2007, a total of 223,501 people had been officially reported to have contracted HIV, including 62,838 AIDS patients, according to an appraisal report by the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS.

Though the rate of AIDS growth has slowed down, the government has admitted the situation remains grave in the country with a population of 1.3 billion. Official reports say there are estimated to be as many as 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China.