Couples in South China Guangzhou city will be offered free premarital physical check-ups as of March.

The city and district governments will pay for the medical examinations.

"The move aims to minimize the transmission of mental, contagious and hereditary diseases from parents to newborns," said Zhang Guangning, mayor of Guangzhou, at a conference on population and family planning in the city on Friday.

"The incidence rate (of mental, contagious and hereditary diseases) in newborn babies stands at 1.72 percent a very alarming figure," Zhang said. "The rate is still on the rise."

He said the government had hammered out an initial plan for the free premarital examinations and details would be announced soon.

Any couple, as long as one of the two is a Guangzhou citizen with registered permanent residency, will be eligible for the free check-up. The government will pay for 70 percent of the fee, with the remaining 30 percent to be paid by the district government.

The standard fee for the examination in Guangzhou is currently 340 yuan ($43.59) per couple.

He said that the free examination will consist of 11 checks for males and 13 for females.

The test will particularly look for anything that might lead to common hereditary diseases like thalassemia (a genetic blood disorder), HIV and syphilis.

Pan Xiaoying, a doctor with the Guangdong Provincial Women and Children's Hospital and Health Institute, applauded the city government's attempt to ensure the next generation is healthy.

"Guangdong is a hotbed for thalassemia. Couples with light thalassemia genes will give birth to babies with serious thalassemia," she said. "A premarital physical examination is in fact very necessary, and especially important for newly-weds in Guangdong if they hope to have healthy babies."

She said that a drop in the number of premarital check-ups had resulted in many more cases of Down syndrome and thalassemia at her hospital.

She said about 4,000 babies a year had been born with thalassemia over the past few years.

Premarital physical check-ups used to be compulsory; however, the new marriage law made the check-up optional in October 2003. The number of voluntary premarital physical examinations has been dropping.

Chen Xuefeng, a high school teacher in Guangzhou, said the move would be beneficial to the next generation.

"Many people refuse to have the check-up because they believe the hospitals charge too much, or they don't have the exam just to save money."

According to official statistics, 230 couples got married in Guangzhou each day in 2006 on average.

Editor: Yan