The capital city of southwestern China's Sichuan Province will formally adopt the lethal injection death penalty instead of shooting starting today, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

The change came after a 10-year-long trial of the application of the injection, the Huaxi Metropolis News reported.

The lethal injection, which tends to reduce pain for both the prisoners and their families, will be funded by the country's Supreme People's Court with each injection priced at 300 yuan (US$42.1), the report said.

Staff involved in the injection process will receive special training, especially psychological training, to help them cope with the execution, the report said.

It said a board with a hole will be set up between prisoners and police officers so that neither of them will see each other during the execution.

Prisoners will be asked to stretch their arm through the hole and the police will inject the fatal medicine into the arm, the report said.

The medicine first makes the prisoner unconscious, then stops the heartbeat.

(Shanghai Daily March 1, 2008)