China will closely watch the development of mad cow disease in the United States and other countries and enhance its border inspection to prevent the disease from spreading into the country, a high-ranking official with China's Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said Tuesday.

The move follows an announcement by the US agriculture minister on June 24 that a confirmed case of mad cow disease was reported in the United States.

The official said that China's current quarantine methods for mad cow disease are effective, adding that the AQSIQ will expand technical cooperation and exchange with the International Epizootic Bureau to make China free of mad cow disease while strictly enforcing the existing policies.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the AQSIQ jointly issued an urgent notification to ban the imports of cows and related products from the United States when a suspected case of mad cow disease was reported in the Washington State in December 2003.

China's Taiwan, for the second time, imposed an import ban on US beef on Saturday.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2005)