Beijing - Shares on China's main stock market leapt by nearly 8 per cent on Monday, following an even bigger jump on Friday, spurred by weekend news of the US government's financial rescue plan.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, gained 161.32 points, or 7.77 per cent, to end the day at 2,236.41.

The rise followed a gain of 9.46 per cent in Shanghai on Friday, the previous trading day, and was also influenced by the government's easing of rules for share buy-back, state media said.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index rose by 3.8 per cent, or 22.62 points, to close at 618.34 on Monday.

Taipei - A Taiwan-based Chinese dissident, angry that the Taiwan government has not granted him permanent asylum, on Monday asked Taipei to send him back to China.

Cai Lujun, 40, said he made the request because he can no longer endure the "endless wait" for asylum and the humiliation of living like a "half-ghost, half-human being" in Taiwan.

He said he is not afraid of imprisonment in China for defecting to Taiwan, because it is better being jailed in China than begging for food and waiting indefinitely for asylum in Taiwan, he said in a statement.

Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W Bush discussed the US financial crisis by telephone on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Hu told Bush he hoped that US measures to bolster financial markets would soon have an effect and "lead to a gradual recovery," the ministry said on its website.

Recovery of US financial markets was in the interests of China as well as the United States and would benefit the entire global economy, Hu was quoted as saying.

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong teenager celebrating his 18th birthday and three of his friends were Monday confirmed as being among the 43 dead in Saturday's nightclub blaze in southern China.

Choi Wai-tat and his friends crossed the border to Shenzhen to celebrate his birthday in the Dance King nightclub which is popular with Hong Kong youths because of its cheap drinks.

He died with his friends aged 17 to 20 as smoke from a fireworks show that went wrong billowed through the unlicensed club and people scrambled to try to escape through a single exit, officials said.

The only member of the Hong Kong party to survive the tragedy was Cheng Sze-lap, who later told reporters he was knocked unconscious in the stampede for the exit.

Beijing - China's top leaders have urged officials across the country to respond to the growing scandal over tainted milk after one government department said it had received more than 100,000 complaints about dairy products, state media said on Sunday.

The government has ordered a complete overhaul of the dairy industry after tainted milk powder killed at least four infants and sickened some 6,200 others.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Saturday visited a hospital treating babies stricken by melamine-laced milk powder in the northern province of Hebei, where many of the cases of melamine-related illness were recorded.

Manila - The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed satisfaction on Sunday with the response of the Chinese government in containing the spread of the tainted infant milk that has already killed at least four babies in China.

Shigeru Omi, outgoing regional director of the WHO Western Pacific Office which covers Asia and the Pacific, said that the WHO and the Chinese government are working closely to address the problem.

According to the latest information from the WHO, some 6,244 children in China have suffered health problems after being fed with infant milk contaminated with melamine

Melamine is used as a binding agent and coating for particle, fibre and laminated boards in furniture. It is also used to make fertilizer.