Beijing  - China on Wednesday launched a partnership with the Gates Foundation to fight the growth of drug-resistant tuberculosis and develop a prevention model that could be used in other nations.

The partnership, announced at a World Health Organization ministerial meeting on tuberculosis, will be supported by a 33-million-dollar grant over five years from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"This tuberculosis prevention and control programme is a continuation of the successful cooperation between the Chinese Ministry of Health and the Gates Foundation that began on the issue of HIV/AIDS," said Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu.

"It aims to establish an effective TB prevention model through the exploration of new diagnostic tools and methods," Chen said.

"This will not only benefit TB prevention and control efforts both in China and throughout the world, but it also sets an excellent example of the partnership between government and private sectors that is widely promoted by the international community," he said.

Bill Gates said the new partnership "comes at a critical time in the world's response to tuberculosis".

"The rise of drug-resistant TB worldwide has created a new urgency to combat the disease, while scientific innovation is leading to new technologies that will help us succeed," Gates said.

"China is taking the threat of TB very seriously, and we're excited to support its efforts," he said.

The partnership aims to improve detection and treatment of the estimated 1.5 million tuberculosis annually in China.

The grant from the Gates Foundation will help China to develop new diagnostic tests, drug regimens, patient monitoring strategies, and health delivery approaches, Chen said.

Chen and Gates are attending a meeting of top health officials from 27 countries affected by the rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis.

The World Health Organization last week said the percentage of people contracting tuberculosis globally was declining, but it warned that the world was failing to cut the death rates fast enough.

It said the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia regions will meet the goal of halving mortality rates of 1990 by 2015, but other areas, including Europe and Africa, will fail to meet the targets.

There were an estimated 500,000 drug-resistant tuberculosis cases worldwide in 2007. (dpa)