The program, launched in the Guangxi Zhuang region bordering on Vietnam, will be carried out over the coming five to 10 years, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua did not give any indication of how the expensive program was to be financed.

The agency quoted a local health official as saying that more HIV carriers had come to hospitals for treatment in the recent years, in a signal of growing infection rates.

The problem, however, is that most HIV carriers do not seek medical treatment until they are already in serious condition, according to Xinhua.

A fundamental issue for China's campaign against AIDS is the lack of information how far the epidemic has spread.

China officially has an estimated 840,000 HIV carriers -- a figure disputed by many independent observers -- and the government has precise knowledge of only a small percentage even of that conservative number of patients.

A mere 12.7 percent were registered with the health authorities, and disease control centers only had detailed records of 4.2 percent, according to earlier reports.

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