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Starting Thursday, couples in Shenyang, the capital of northeastern China's Liaoning Province, can receive premarital medical checkups free of charge.

The municipal government will pay the expenses in a bid to reduce the rising number of birth defects.

However, that doesn't mean premarital checkups have again become compulsory, the Northeast Network quoted officials as saying.

Compulsory premarital checkups were abolished nationwide in 2003 by the revised Marriage Registration Regulations. Since then, the rate of couples undergoing the checkups has dropped sharply.

Statistics show one million babies are born with defects annually in China. In Shenyang alone, 1.25 out of every 100 newborns fell into this category last year, rising from 1.13 the year before. An estimated 16.8 million yuan (US$2.17 million) are spent every year on surgeries and medical care for these babies.

Having realized the critical situation, the Shenyang government began paying for premarital checkups in 2004 in six pilot districts and counties, achieving encouraging results.

Local officials are also planning free consultations for marrying couples to promote premarital checkups.

Earlier, a number of other Chinese cities have already introduced free premarital checkups.

Guangzhou, the capital city of southern China's Guangdong Province, is scheduled to offer free checkups later this month.

(CRI March 9, 2007)