BEIJING, Dec 1 (AFP) - China promised Friday to shoulder its responsibility in controlling the spread of AIDS in the world's most populous country, but experts warned it was facing catastrophe without urgent action.

The China Daily said the number of confirmed HIV or AIDS cases in China was 20,711 although it said medical experts put the real figure at a conservative 500,000 at the end of 1999.

Health experts said the government understood the magnitude of the problem, but they warned China could be facing 10 million cases of AIDS or HIV by 2010.

"China is on a fast track to having a big epidemic," said Edwin Judd, China representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

"Unless there is really substantial action in the next three or four years the real danger is that we will have 10 million cases of HIV or AIDS in the year 2010 or worse," he added.

A China Daily editorial to mark Friday's World AIDS Day said it was vital education and prevention campaigns were intensified to prevent the epidemic taking further root among the vast population of 1.3 billion.

"To prevent and control its spread is a matter that concerns the future of the nation. As the world's most populous country China fully understands its arduous task and responsibility in controlling the AIDS epidemic," it said.

Zeng Yi, head of one of the two biggest Chinese non-governmental organisations devoted to AIDS prevention, said China had until now focused AIDS prevention on cities in the belief that drugs and prostitution were the major factors in its spread.

However the majority of China's HIV carriers are in the countryside where blood selling has contributed to a rapid spread of AIDS which has gone largely unrecognised by the government, he said.

"If they don't deal with the isolated cases, it could become a big problem," said Zeng.

Chinese have traditionally been reluctant to donate blood, something they view as a vital life force, and for around 15 years both legal and illegal blood banks roamed the countryside paying for donations with few health checks.

The practice was eventually outlawed in 1998 but the government has yet to take any steps to find out how many people were infected with the HIV virus.

In one notorious case, the village of Wenlou in the central province of Henan, tests indicate around 65 percent of villagers have been infected with the virus through blood donations.

And a survey published in China's press this week indicated that knowledge of HIV and AIDS is extremely limited among the population.

The survey of 3,824 people by the ministry of health and People's University of China said just 3.8 percent of Chinese people knew how the HIV virus was transmitted.

The poll said that 53.6 percent of those questioned, in both the cities and countryside, believed that they could become infected after eating with chopsticks or bowls used by someone with HIV.

It said 49.5 percent thought they could catch the virus from a sneeze and nearly 30 percent through shaking hands, while 45.3 percent thought using a condom would not help the prevent them catching the disease.

China's media said families with relatives battling the AIDS virus frequently face painful discrimination and ignorance within society.

The Shanghai Star cited as an example factory worker Hu Dong who was ostracised by his colleagues after his 16-year-old son died from AIDS and was demoted by the factory.

Since the story leaked out, workers in the canteen refuse to handle his bowl when ladling his food and Hu has to nod at the factory doormen when he checks into work instead of punching the time clock, the report added.

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