"While political commitment towards AIDS has improved in recent years at the national level in China, it remains uncertain in many provinces, counties and cities," the report said, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The report, which described China's progress on the "Millennium Development Goals," also suggested Beijing further increase investment, improve non-discriminatory care and treatment of people with HIV/AIDS, promote condom use and improve sex education.

It did say public HIV/AIDS awareness had improved in China.

China now has about 840,000 HIV carriers, in which 80,000 are AIDS patients.

According to the report, nearly 64 percent of the total reported HIV/AIDS cases to date were caused by the sharing of infected needles during injected drug use.

Infection through plasma collection, blood transfusion and injection accounted for 11 percent of the reported total, Xinhua said.

The report said more recently there had been a large increase in the number of people infected through unprotected sex, both heterosexual and homosexual, especially in coastal areas in east and south China and in big cities.

In addition, HIV infections transmitted from mothers to infants have also been reported in some areas of high general infection, according to Xinhua.

TERRA.WIRE