A Sino-British AIDS prevention project has concluded its six-year mission in southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, promoting condom use among female sex workers and reducing the syringe sharing by drug users.

At a meeting held by the Ministry of Health and the British Embassy in China on Thursday, officials said the project distributed 4.2 million condoms and 1.28 million disposable syringes, and collected 1.14 million used needles.

A total of 129,000 high-risk and vulnerable groups in 83 counties in the two provinces were targeted by the project - the China-UK HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project - including people living with HIV/AIDS, injection drug users, women sex workers, men who have sex with men and people who visit prostitutes.

Launched in June 2000 with funds from Britain, the project helped Yunnan and Sichuan set up 57 volunteer community teams and provided care and support to 4,531 people infected with HIV and AIDS. Volunteers raised AIDS awareness among 46,702 women sex workers.

The project has achieved its targets, according to experts from the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

A new round of the project will soon begin in seven Chinese provinces, with 30 million pounds (US$57 million) provided by Britain, officials said at the meeting.

China has approximately 650,000 people infected with HIV, including 75,000 AIDS patients, according to official estimates.

Yunnan had 40,157 HIV infection cases by the end of 2005. Sichuan had reported a total of 7,646 cases by June this year.

The project helped to raise the number of Sichuan injection drug users who did not share syringes to 78.7 percent in 2005 from 52.4 percent in 2002, and in Yunnan to 85.8 percent in 2005 from 64.4 percent in 2003.

The condom use by women sex workers in the two provinces also rose during 2002 to 2005, from 35.2 percent to 52.3 percent in Sichuan and 36.2 percent to 70 percent in Yunnan.

The project also helped to dispel fear and discrimination towards AIDS patients and HIV carriers in Zizhong of Sichuan, where 109 people were infected after selling blood to illegal dealers in 1995.