The new committee will be responsible for drafting policies and regulations, coordinating work and mobilizing public resources for preventing a scourge that is in danger of spiralling out of control, the China Daily said.

It aims to improve the mechanism to coordinate information among ministries and departments, the report said.

The committee could be headed by Vice Premier Wu Yi, who also became health minister last year during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis when the then minister was sacked following allegations China covered up the outbreak.

China's ministries and departments adamantly guard their own turf and refuse to cooperate with each other, sometimes at the expense of the common good.

HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention work is left up to the Ministry of Health, which has been described as one of the least powerful and worst-funded in China.

The ministry has traditionally shown itself unable to command cooperation from provincial authorities, unless the central government steps in, as seen in the fight against SARS and bird flu.

Independent AIDS activists said Friday it was too early to say whether the committee will make a difference.

"I can only wait and see what the committee will do," said China's foremost AIDS activist Gao Yaojie, a retired doctor who was spending her own money helping farmers who contracted HIV/AIDS from selling blood in central China long before Beijing paid attention to the problem.

Gao said the level of government commitment on AIDS pales in comparison to the commitment to fight SARS, which started in southern China and later spread to more than 30 countries, killing nearly 800 people.

"SARS is like a mosquito bite. AIDS is like a poisonous snake bite. In many places in China, AIDS outbreaks still haven't been exposed. Even in Henan, there are places we can't access," she said.

"Henan punished 1,000 cadres over SARS, but officials responsible for organizing the blood sales that caused the AIDS outbreak still haven't been punished, but have instead been promoted," she said.

The latest figures from the ministry show there are 840,000 HIV carriers in China, but the real figure is believed to be much higher.

UN experts warn the figure could mushroom to 20 million by 2010 if effective measures are not taken.

TERRA.WIRE