About half of the Chinese public believe it will take at least three months to conquer SARS, a new survey reveals.

Only 31.6 per cent of those surveyed were confident of overcoming SARS within a month.

The poll of people's views of and reactions to SARS, jointly conducted by Horizon Survey Group, Tsinghua University and Hewlett-Packard (China), surveyed 843 people above the age of 18 from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The interviews were done by telephone in mid-May.

The newly released survey results indicate that residents of Beijing are more optimistic and relaxed than those in the other two cities.

But people are still wary of the flu-like disease and are paying much more attention to newly confirmed SARS cases than to suspected ones.

About 25.7 per cent of all respondents accept that no local reports of new SARS cases in three weeks would signal the end of the epidemic in their region.

The advent of SARS has disrupted the routines of many Chinese people, with 70 per cent of those questioned expressing increasing concern about their health and outlook on life.

Most of the respondents believe that SARS would badly affect China's economy over the next one to two years and 4.8 per cent are afraid the effects will be longer lasting.

More than 90 per cent of respondents said they are satisfied with their local governments and are confident of overcoming SARS.

The move towards government transparency, such as the introduction of daily media briefings, won high praise and support from the public and the survey backed the domestic media's handling of the issue.

The respondents also extended their support for the measures taken by the government to fight SARS.

The top three directives in the public's mind are the decision to fix the official price of anti-SARS products, to offer free medical care to poor SARS patients, and to reduce the financial burden on industries seriously hit by the disease.