Japan expresses concern over China's ban on leprosy suffers+

BEIJING, July 16 (Kyodo) - Japan on Tuesday expressed its concern over China's ban on the entry of leprosy suffers and HIV positive people into the country and urged Beijing to rethinkits position, a Japanese government official said.

A Japanese delegation conveyed the view in a bilateral dialogue on human rights in the Chinese capital, held for the first time in eight years.

''We expressed our strong interest in the Chinese position'' on the entry ban, the official said. ''We mentioned that the diseases are not transmitted through everyday activities, and urged China to take forward-looking action.''China says it does not allow leprosy patients and HIV positive people into the country to protect people in China from infections.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao noted that the ban does not apply for those who are cured of leprosy or the families of sufferers of the disease.

Beijing ''generally supports'' a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for elimination of discrimination against leprosy patients, Liu said at a regular press conference, adding that China ''will continue to positively consider related measures.''Japan has a history of segregating people with leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease. It did so for almost 90 years from 1907 to 1996 on the erroneous notion that the disease is highly infectious.

The Japanese delegation to the talks was led by Yoshitaka Akimoto, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Bureau.

Heading the Chinese delegation was Shen Yongxiang, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry's department of international organizations and conferences.

The human rights dialogue had not been held since January 2000, when it stopped after China was angered by calls from Japan and the United States at the United Nations to improve its human rights record.

The working-level dialogue framework was created in 1997, with talks being held three times since then.