United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative Siri Tellier said here Wednesday that China's efforts to build harmonious society help eliminate gender discrimination, echoing the release of The State of World Population 2005 report on the same day.

Global efforts to "make poverty history" will fall unless world leaders act now to end discrimination, according to the report.

Tellier said that there is gender discrimination in all countries, and "the emphasis by the CPC (the Communist Party of China) on equitable development towards a harmonious society is very welcome in this respect."

While acknowledging China's tremendous strides in eliminating gender discrimination in the last half century, she also pointed out that many Chinese women are also concerned that much of the recent economic progress is not benefiting everyone equitably, especially women.

The State of World Population report is released every year by UNFPA since 1978. This year's report, The Promise of Equality, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals, calls upon world leaders to fulfill promises made to world's women.

Considering reproductive health an important part in ending gender discrimination, Tellier said, "China has much to be proud of in terms of improving maternal mortality -- China has made more progress on this than most countries."

According to a white paper issued in August, in the past decade, the mortality rate of Chinese women in childbirth has declined steadily - from 61.9 per 100,000 in 1995 to 48.3 per 100,000 in 2004.

Reproductive health problems -- including HIV/AIDS -- constitute the leading cause of death and illness among women between the age of 15 and 44 and every year more than 50 million women die of pregnancy-related causes, the State of the World Population says.

"In some areas of the country, however, maternal mortality is quite high, and there are still counties which have not adopted the new approaches and where services and attitudes of service providers can be improved," said Tellier.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2005)