Health authorities in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will promote the use of condoms at all entertainment venues this year amid efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

To date, 40 counties and cities in the region, or nearly half of the total, have launched the 100 percent Condom Use Program - promoted by the World Health Organization globally - at entertainment spots.

The counties and cities which have not started the program must make condoms available at every entertainment place in the first half of the year, the health department has ordered.

There have been 27,209 reported HIV/AIDS cases in the area from 1995 to the end of September 2006, including 700 AIDS patients and 111 deaths, according to local health authorities.

Xinjiang ranks fourth on the HIV/AIDS infection list out of 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland, and accounts for about one-tenth of the country's total sufferers.

Health authorities estimate that HIV/AIDS cases exceed 60,000 in Xinjiang, and the region will face a challenge in combating the disease.

The local government has vowed to limit the number of HIV/AIDS cases to 120,000 by 2010 and raise the proportion of high-risk groups using condoms to 90 percent.

The first "100 percent CUP" was pioneered in Thailand in 1989 and has since been adopted in other Asian nations, producing clear results in HIV/AIDS and sexual disease control.

The program makes condoms compulsory for all sex workers at all times. The aim is to reduce HIV/AIDS infection among high-risk people.

A joint effort by the Chinese Ministry of Health and WHO, the program was introduced in 2001 on a trial basis in Wuhan City of Hubei Province, Jingjiang City of Jiangsu Province, Danzhou City of Hainan Province, and Lixian County of Hunan Province.

The program has been fully implemented in Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan and Hainan provinces.

In addition to Xinjiang, the provinces of Shandong, Gansu, Liaoning and Fujian, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, are carrying out the program.

Data from the Ministry of Health show that the number of reported HIV/AIDS cases grew to 183,733 nationwide by the end of October last year, up nearly 30 percent from 144,089 at the end of 2005.