The Ministry of Health and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine have pledged to sharpen the medicine's power to prevent and treat diseases.

"The government will redouble efforts in improving the medicine's functions as a key element of medical reform in the vast rural areas,'' Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang said at a national conference Monday on TCM.

Since the medical reform affects the country's 900 million farmers, the State Council has urged health care authorities at all levels to do a better job encouraging co-operation among rural health care organizations and educating Chinese doctors in the countryside.

The State will train more doctors in traditional Chinese medicine with help from senior traditional Chinese doctors.

The Ministry of Health and the administration will expand co-operation between governments at all levels on traditional Chinese medicine so as to make the practice better accepted worldwide.

It is already popular among growing numbers of people who turn to herbs and other natural methods of healing.

Traditional Chinese medicine "should be better developed to serve people's health care demands,'' said She Jing, vice-minister of health and the administration's director. "It will be improved by incorporating modern science and technology.''

The success of TCM has been based only on personal experience for thousands of years. A quantitative analysis has never been done, though government officials are trying to change that.

A few domestic pharmaceutical companies have adjusted their producing procedures to meet the requirements of a more widely accepted certification system, said Duan Liping, a researcher in strategic development programmes on TCM in the Institute of Science and Technology Information of China.

Traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of heart disease produced by Tianjin Tianshili Pharmaceutical Co Ltd has passed the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and is applying for the Good Clinical Practice (GCP) of the US Food and Drug Administration.

The Chinese Government also will strengthen its crackdown on illegal medical practices.

It will eradicate illegal treatment centres, unlicensed doctors and unlawful advertising of traditional Chinese medicines.