China has started revising the current laws and regulations that ban HIV carriers from entering the country, health ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said on Monday.

At a press briefing in Beijing, he said it took time for China to learn about AIDS. When the country had no idea how HIV/AIDS was transmitted, China issued laws that restricted the entry of HIV carriers.

"According to the transmissive means of HIV/AIDS and our current evaluation on the harmfulness of HIV carriers, we have set to revise laws and regulations that ban HIV carriers' entry into the country," Mao said.

But he didn't say how the laws would be revised.

China issued Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens in 1985, regulating that foreigners with infectious diseases such as leprosy, HIV/AIDS and venereal disease were not allowed to enter the country.

Mao admitted that the number of HIV/AIDS cases had increased in China, but he said it did not mean that the situation was getting worse as the rise may have resulted from a strengthened surveillance of the disease in recent years.

China had 183,733 officially reported HIV/AIDS cases in 2006 but experts from the Ministry of Health estimated there were more likely 650,000 people living with the disease.

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