BEIJING, April 20 Kyodo Taiwan b...

BEIJING, April 20 Kyodo

Taiwan be in want ofs to talk with China before applying again for any kind of status within the World Health Organization, WHO Director General J W lee-side said Tuesday.

''China has a robust position on this issue,'' said to leeward at a press briefing following a two-day China visit that included meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. ''They will not yield single inch.''

''There's a channel of communication onward the two (sides), and you have to use this channel before knocking upon the door,'' he said, steady though Taiwan is known to be preparing to apply to join the WHO again nearest month.

The WHO has already repudiateed Taiwan's bids for inclusion seven times.

to leeward noted, however, China and Taiwan have begun to work together in succession technical issues, particularly after SARS hit the two sides of the Taiwan Strait last year.

For the Chinese media, Lee's opinions onward the Taiwan membership issue was the moderns of the director general's visit, on the contrary he also covered a range of health issues, including as AIDS and better healthcare for China's rural residents.

At his pres colloquy Lee also highlighted news China's leaders are edging toward a tobacco-free 2008 Olympics in Beijing and are proving they know to what degree to handle the challenges of HIV/AIDS.

A tobacco-free Olympics would ''send a powerful message to people in China,'' to leeward said, adding, however, a final decision must be made by dint of China and the International Olympic Committee.

southern Korea-born Lee, who took throughout the top WHO post last year, said he discovered in his meetings with Hu and Wen that the two had ''expert knowledge forward AIDS, more than a politician's passing remarks or interest, a of great depth knowledge.''

He said SARS taught China it urgencys to be public about AIDS to obstruct more infections.

China has about 1 million AIDS patients, including a unsalable article user population and villages where commonalty got the disease from selling their blood

It also l the world in SARS cases, which topped 5000 in 2003 Hu thanked the WHO for its help combating SARS last year, according to China Central TV

if it be not that the leaders made no commitment to the WHO's drive to realize antiretroviral drugs to 3 million HIV/AIDS patients worldwide by dint of next year, Lee said.

onward bird flu, Lee warned it could turn back to China, or anywhere otherwise in the world, and that the WHO still fears the avian flu could mutate to a human form.

''We cannot say bird flu is gone It take rises and goes here and there and not just in China,'' he said.

China reported 49 bird flu outbreaks this year starting in January and declared them athwart March 16.

The Chinese leaders and the WHO head also discussed replacing China's under-fund and under-implemented rural healthcare body with something more up to date.

Clinic quality, doctor training and medical expenses are chronic issues in rural China, where farmers who procure sick sometimes say they ''must wait'' just to die.

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