Bangkok, june 29: Asia-Pacific health ministers agreed Saturday to common health screening procedures for the deadly SARS virus and to share more information to combat the disease as China promised openness to stop future outbreaks.
Ministers and officials of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, meeting in Thailand, also pledged to keep their markets open and resist using anti-SARS measures as protectionist trade barriers.

In a final statement, the APEC ministers adopted an action plan to standardise health screening and increase information flows about SARS and other diseases across the grouping, which covers economies ranging from the United States to the tiny, oil-rich sultanate of Brunei.

The measures include departure and arrival temperature and medical checks on air passengers from areas designated by the U.N.`s World Health Organization (WHO) as SARS-affected. Suspect passengers would be quarantined.

They also urged priority customs clearance for medical equipment and supplies and said they would not let SARS control measures become a barrier to travel.
"As there is no evidence that goods and products from economies with local transmission of SARS pose a risk to public health, disinfecting and barring such goods is unnecessary," the statement said.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, believed to have jumped from animals to humans in China late last year, has killed more than 800 people worldwide, infected about 8,500, trimmed economic growth forecasts and cost billions of dollars in lost business.
Opening the meeting Saturday, China`s vice-premier and health minister, Wu Yi, said Chinese society had become more open as a result of having to deal with the virus.

She said SARS was top of the Chinese government`s agenda and pledged international openness and cooperation in future.
Bureau Report