SHANGHAI, Dec 28 (AFP) - Western-made female condoms are to be launched in the New Year in China, home of the one-child policy, the Shanghai Daily reported Thursday.

The Chicago-based Female Health Company, which pioneered the Femidom, has registered the device in China and teamed up with a local distribution company to market the product over the Internet, the paper said.

Tests in Shanghai have showed the product might do well, according to Xu Jinxun, a director in Shanghai's Municipal Commission for Population and Family Planning who conducted a survey about Femidom use among 30 married couples in 1998.

Ninety percent of both husbands and wives considered it acceptable, 80 percent of women preferred it to the male condom while 73 percent of men liked it better, the paper said.

The Femidom, manufactured in London, failed to make much of an impact on the British market because people felt self-conscious using it and there were complaints about its comfort.

In China, domestically made female condoms reached the market in 1999 but have not won much praise.

Twenty-nine-year-old Vivien Jin said one of her friends had tried one but had never used it again because it was uncomfortable.

Another concern for Female Health and its local distribution partner Duda Trading Development Co, will be cost.

Duda surveyed Shanghai prostitutes and found that almost all would consider using the female condom, but 60 percent were concerned about the price.

The retail price for condoms in China is 20.6 yuan (2.48 dollars) compared with just two or three yuan for a male condom.

China's National Research Institute for Family Planning in Beijing, a World Health Organisation collaboration center, will conduct a wider research project on the acceptability of the condom among prostitutes next year, the Shanghai Daily said.

Prostitution is illegal in China but there are estimated to be around four million call girls nationwide, according to police reports.

Studies indicate that at least 500,000 people in China have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and that number is expected to double over the next decade, the paper noted.

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