ATHENS, Sept. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) will launch a fitness program for the people with physical disabilities, an official of the federation told Xinhua here on Sunday.

    The federation will hold a national conference on physical education and sports work later this year, at which the program will be officially launched, said Lu Shiming, deputy chef-de-mission of the Chinese delegation for the 12th Paralympic Games here.

    It is part of the federation's efforts to carry out the nationwide "Sports for All" fitness program and the principles of the federation's program would be carried out during China's build-up for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

    Ever since China's Games debut in New York in 1984, Chinese Paralympic athletes have competed in six games including the current games in the Greek capital, said Lu, who is also vice-president of the China Paralympic Committee.

    With China's economy rapidly rising to be one of the fastest in the world and China's Paralympic sports well developed though, only a small part of the country's 60 million people with physical and mental disabilities enjoy a access to systematic training and competition, Lu said.

    Sports serve as a platform with which calls could be made to the whole society for concerns on people with physical and mental disabilities and it could help to promote Paralympic sports in China, he said.

    Deng Pufang, president of the federation, said that much attention should be made to take care of the health and sports exercises by people with disabilities. Sports boast the role of enriching one life and improving the health and it is also the natural demand of people with physical and mental disabilities. Enditem