A Chinese health official Thursday called for a closer cooperation with the United States in the field of biomedical research on the basis of mutual benefit.

The appeal came in the lecture by Huang Jiefu, Chinese vice minister of health, at the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He said China as the world's largest developing country and the United States as the most influential industrial nation should work together towards the common objective of creating a better world for all peoples.

With the steady economic growth in China, there will be more opportunities for the two countries to cooperate in biomedical research, both of basic and applied nature.

"Some highly visible areas of possible Sino-U.S. biomedical research cooperation are genomics, HIV/AIDS, chronic diseases, and the modernization of the traditional Chinese medicine," he said.

"What is even more important is the establishment of a scientific framework for such cooperation on the basis of fairness and mutual benefit," he said.

(People's Daily May 17, 2002)