China's top legislature on Saturday approved a treaty on judicial cooperation with Portugal on the transfer of convicted persons.

The treaty allows convicted persons in both nations to serve prison sentences in home countries "closer to their families".

According to the treaty, signed in Beijing in January, the transfer of convicted persons would only be applied to convicted Chinese or Portuguese who should have at least one year remaining in their sentence at the time of submission of transfer request.

Minister of Justice Wu Aiying said while briefing lawmakers at the just-concluded legislative session, "Since the concept of offender transfer serves a very important humanitarian purpose, the legal rights of convicted prisoners should be guaranteed."

The transfer of convicted persons would facilitate prisoners to get assistance from their family members and eliminate cultural and communication obstacles for them when serving their terms in a foreign country, Wu said.

The weeklong 31st session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), ended on Saturday.

The 19-article treaty also stipulated that the transfer of convicted persons should only be conducted after it was acceded by sentenced prisoners themselves.

Statistics showed that 70 Chinese were imprisoned in Portugal, while a lone Portuguese was serving time in China as of June.

Since 2002, China have signed treaties on transfer of convicted persons with Ukraine, Russia and Spain.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2007)