Chinese Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanhua and visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio signed a memorandum on cooperation in the fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) here Monday.

According to the memorandum, the Spanish government will donate 229,000 euros to the Chinese government to buy laboratory equipment, and offer about 240,000 euros for the construction of medical care systems and personnel training in the poverty-stricken Malipo and Jinping counties in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Spain will also entrust the medicine department of Beijing University to publish and disseminate anti-SARS pamphlets, and sponsor Spanish experts to visit China and hold technological symposiums with Chinese experts, according to the memorandum.

The two ministers also exchanged views on bilateral cooperationin science and technology, including medicine, before the signing ceremony, and agreed to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2003)