The Ministry of Public Security disclosed Friday that a national narcotics-control conference will be held March 21-24 in Guiyang, the capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Some 100 people, including directors of provincial level narcotics-control departments from across China, as well as representatives from narcotics-rampant regions, will attend the meeting to summarize narcotics-control work in 1999 and analyze the current situation.

Yang Fengrui, bureau chief of narcotics control under the Ministry of Public Security, also will attend the conference.

China had over 680,000 registered drug addicts in 1999, 14.3 percent more than in 1998, according to the ministry.

Among them, 80 percent are male, and 78 percent are people between the ages of 17 and 35. More than 490,000, or 72 percent of the total, are addicted to heroin.