China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Sunday agreed to co-operate more to defeat SARS while ensuring safe and smooth traffic of people and property in the region.

A joint action plan they passed Sunday in Beijing requires exit-entry travellers to accept temperature screening checks and undergo medical checks if necessary to limit the spread of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

The action plan also requires passengers to fill out a health declaration card.

Details of any incoming passenger suspected of SARS infection will be immediately passed to their last departure point.

Under the new rule, passengers deemed a potential SARS risk should not be denied entry. Rather, they should be referred to health or quarantine authorities for isolation and treatment.

Planes, ships, trains and buses boarded by SARS patients or suspected cases should be disinfected, and ships with suspected cases should contact the nearest port authority and dock at the nearest harbour, it said.

However, entry-exit cargoes do not need to be disinfected, China and ASEAN members agreed in the action plan.

It said customs agencies must give priority to approving the transit of medicines, chemical and biological agents, medical devices, equipment and protective gear used to prevent and treat SARS.

The plan also agrees to co-operate more closely and exchange expertise on containing the virus.

The action plan was passed at the China-ASEAN Entry-exit Quarantine Conference, which was attended by representatives from 10 ASEAN members - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

Editor: Liao Ming