HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, is the virus that causes AIDS, a debilitating and deadly disease of the human immune system. HIV is one of the world's most serious health problems: at the end of 2001, more than 40 million people worldwide were infected with HIV and living with the virus or AIDS.

Among the new cases were 11 foreigners, 120 Beijing residents and 432 migrant Chinese from outside the city, head of the disease control and prevention section of the Municipal Health Bureau, Zhao Tao said.

The Chinese capital city had registered 4,253 HIV/AIDS cases since 1985 by June, including 164 foreigners and 885 Beijing residents.

Needle sharing by drug takers and sex were the main transmission routes of the disease, accounting for 68.1 per cent of the infections, he said.