David Nabarro the United Nation's top official on bird flu has urged China to share its experience with other countries on how to tackle the disease threatening to become a pandemic.
Nabarro on his third visit to China as UN co-ordinator for avian influenza, says he has tried to convince Chinese officials that the knowledge and experience they gained fighting bird flu could help the rest of the world.
In Beijing, he met with Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who heads the country's bird flu command and with officials from the ministries of health and agriculture who have been working on the bird flu issue.
He hopes they have the opportunity to interact with colleagues from governments who are just beginning the struggle, and share with them some of the trials and tribulations they have faced.
According the UN, China had the world's largest poultry population, with 20 percent of the global total.
It also had an estimated 50 percent of the world's pigs and 90 percent of the world's geese, in which the virus is also carried as well as other poultry and wild migratory birds.
Julie Hall, the UN co-ordinator for avian influenza in China says China had also undertaken the world's biggest vaccination campaign, pledging to vaccinate all of its 14 billion poultry and the world can learn from them.
Nabarro's visit to China was to take look at the situation there and persuade China to contribute its expertise and information to the global bird flu fight.
China has apparently agreed to share a large amount of virus samples from poultry outbreaks and Hall says the shipping process and logistics were currently being worked out.
Other UN officials, however, say they would like to see China share more consistently.
China has reported 11 deaths from bird flu out of 16 human infections and there have been 34 outbreaks of bird flu among poultry since the beginning of last year.