Chinese state councilor Zhou Yongkong said Thursday that international cooperation should be stepped up to ban narcotics so as to seek common stability and prosperity for the human being.

Speaking to the second Ministerial Congress of the ASEAN and China Cooperative Operations in Response to Dangerous Drugs, Zhou said that it was the common wish of the human being to totally ban narcotics.

Noting that new types of narcotics are posing a new and serious threat to human being, Zhou, who is also Minister of the Public Security, said that human being has to be confronted with new challenges such as AIDS and other social problems relating to drug addiction.

He said it is necessary for all countries to promote the healthy development of the cause in combating narcotics through increasing mutual trust, strengthening unity and deepening cooperation.

The Chinese government has always given top priority to the drug issue, which is believed to be closely related to the rise and fall of the Chinese nation and people's health, Zhou said, adding that a fairly complete legal system has been established to combat narcotics in the country so far.

He said that the Chinese government sincerely hopes to expand areas of cooperation, enrich the contents of cooperation and upgrade the cooperation together with its neighbors, namely the ASEAN countries, so as to realize the goal of making the region narcotics free through concerted effort.

Chaired by Bai Jingfu, executive vice minister of the public security, the meeting was participated in by some 200 delegates representing 10 ASEAN countries, China, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the ASEAN Secretariat and other international organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2005)