Beijing - Officials in China's worst hit AIDS province plan compulsory pre-marital HIV tests as part of a series of tough measures to stem the spread of the fatal virus.

Premier Wen Jiabao invited 15 AIDS-affected children to the Chinese leadership's Beijing compound to play, sing and chat on World AIDS Day, which fell on Friday. [Xinhua]

Yunnan province, in the nation's southwestern border region with the opium-producing Golden Triangle, will start implementing the measures from January 1, 2007, the Xinhua news agency reported.

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"The year 2007 is crucial in our effort to contain AIDS," Zhang Chang'an, director of the provincial AIDS control office, told Xinhua.

"The province will do anything in its power to live up to its promise of containing the spread of AIDS."

Yunnan, a major transit point for drug trade in the region, is now home to one quarter of China's officially reported HIV cases.

The province had 40,157 HIV sufferers at the end of last year, up sharply from 14,905 two years earlier, according to official statistics.

The new rules also oblige people diagnosed with HIV to immediately tell their spouses or partners.

"If they don't, the local disease control department has the authority to do it for them," Xinhua said, citing the rules.

Hu Jia, a Beijing-based AIDS activist, said he was concerned about the rights implications of the new rules.

"The Yunnan pronvicial government is simply motivated by what makes life easier for itself but it violates people's right of privacy," he said.

"It's hard to tell whether someone has informed his spouse or partner, and using a law to ensure it happens is definitely not the way to go."

He said the Yunnan rules did not appear to conform with national policy.

The State Council, China's cabinet in February issues its first detailed national policy guidelines on dealing with the AIDS epidemic.

The rules said that those who seek information and testing should be given the services for free and no department must reveal the identities of carriers of the virus nor personal information about them without their permission.

China's health ministry has said 183,733 people were confirmed with HIV/AIDS at the end of October, a 27.5 percent rise from the end of last year.

The number of confirmed cases is significantly lower than the estimate of 650,000 put forward jointly by the government and United Nations health agencies in January.