Beijing: November 15, 2007 - Chinese doctors have claimed to have developed a new birth control surgery for men as alternative to vasectomy that could be made available to the people beginning next year.

The new technique involves making a small incision along the testicle and placing a tiny tube, about the size of a match, which functions as a filter that blocks the sperm, the state-run China Daily said.

"The success rate for this form of birth control is 97 per cent," Wu Weixiong, said the Director of Guangzhou Family Planning Technology Centre.

The patented new technique would be promoted by the health department as soon as it receives approval by the National Food and Drug Administration, Zhu Jiaming, Vice-president of the Guangzhou Sexology Association said. He expects the approval by next year.

The operation lasting only 10 minutes is very difficult and requires highly skilled doctors, he said. Only a few hospitals and staff are equipped to handle the procedure.

The newspaper said the technique was developed after more than 1,600 clinical trials all over the country in a four-year research led by the science and technology institute of the National Population and Family Planning Commission and Guangzhou family planning science and technology institute.