Chinese scientists have completed tests on how long the SARS virus can live outside the human body.

The detailed results will be revealed next week, according to the Key Science and Technology Group under the National Task Force for SARS Control and Prevention.

The tests were carried out under different temperatures, ultraviolet rays, in dry environment, and in soil, metal, glass and other matter.

Scientists have found SARS virus genes in monkeys, moles, masked palm civets, snakes and wild birds.

It means that SARS or a similar virus may exist in the bodies of some wild animals.

Now scientists are racing against the clock to study the way how the virus is spread between animals and humans.

A total of 95 programmes focusing on clinical research, drugs, prevention of SARS and international co-operation are under way.

More than 119 million yuan (US$14 million) has been ploughed into these programmes, said Xu Guanhua, the group's director and also minister of science and technology.

The science and technology group has started to improve the conditions of the country's safe biological laboratories to raise the quality of studies of anti-SARS drugs and vaccines.

A new laboratory for SARS research is being constructed and the country will import mobile biological lab instruments to meet demand.

More efforts will be made to study the variation of SARS virus and monitor infection-prone human groups to eliminate the disease, he said.

Zeng Yi, a researcher with the China Disease Prevention and Control Centre and a member of the science and technology group, said many reports of anti-SARS drugs and vaccines in newspapers and websites are too boastful.

Care should be taken with news releases before the results of scientific experiments are made public, said Zeng.

Editor: Liao Ming