BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- China wants to give overseas companies confidence in its efforts to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) Wednesday, as President Hu Jintao met with Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates in the first stop of a US visit.

    "The talks between President Hu Jintao and Bill Gates are not about saying that China in the future will not have any problems with pirated software," Wang Ziqiang, spokesman for the State Copyright Bureau, told a press conference.

    "These talks are an epitome to show the stance of the Chinese government in protecting IPR and cracking down on IPR violations."

    Hu's meeting with Gates in Seattle Tuesday was to give overseas investors and firms confidence in China's determination to crack down on intellectual property violations and to believe that piracy can be confined to a limited scale with the consistent efforts of the Chinese government, Wang acknowledged.

    China has adopted regulations recently that computers made in China must be pre-installed with legitimate operating system and imported computers sold in China must be pre-installed with legal operating system, as an efficient, substantial effort to beef up the protection of intellectual property rights.

    Wang also disputed statements made by US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez that up to 70 percent of software on Chinese government computers was pirated.

    "Mr. Gutierrez's statement is not backed by any facts and is therefore unfounded," he said.

    Wang said the process of legitimate software use on government computers involves reporting to the government procurement department at a higher level for the amount of legitimate software after a thorough-going check-up on the pirated software and the government will conduct the procurement and pay for the expenses.

    The Chinese central government is expected to allocate up to 150 million yuan (about 18.7 million dollars) for legitimate software purchases for government computers, he said.

    China is also working hard to promote legitimate software use in enterprises, especially in the state-owned firms where the government has more control, said Zhang Qin, vice commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office. Enditem