The Ministry of Health is investigating organ transplants performed on 17 Japanese in China, vowing to punish the doctors and medical institutions responsible, an official said on Monday.

In a statement on the ministry's website, Deputy Minister Huang Jiefu said the country had banned the trade of human organs since May 2007.

China prohibits transplants for foreigners, because there is an organ shortage in the country. There are only about 10,000 donors for the more than 1 million Chinese who need transplants annually, Huang added.

Japan's Kyoto News reported earlier that the 17 Japanese patients each spent about 595,000 yuan (US$87,000) for the operations at an unidentified hospital in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

Most of the patients were aged between 50 and 65, and received kidney or liver transplants, the report said.

Huang said the government plans to develop a national system regulating organ transplants, beginning with a registration scheme.

All facilities that perform transplants will be required to come under the system, he said.

Since 2007, the ministry had licensed more than 160 medical institutions to do organ transplants.

A kidney and liver transplant registration system had been established, with work underway on one for hearts and lungs.

The ministry will work with the Red Cross to launch pilot scheme on organ donations in some parts of China, Huang said.

China is host to the second largest number of transplants after the United States, with about 5,000 operations performed in the country annually.

(China Daily February 17, 2009)