China's first laboratory to study highly contagious and fatal diseases has been inaugurated in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and will enable scientists to research live Ebola viruses.

On Saturday, the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Chinese Academy of Sciences held a ceremony to mark the completion of the National Biosafety Laboratory - the country's first biosafety level-4 laboratory, also known as a P4 laboratory.

The facility, designed with the highest-level biosafety standards, is an essential platform for research and development against highly contagious and infectious diseases such as Ebola.

"The laboratory filled the domestic void, provided conditions for research on the Ebola virus and brought our fight against the virus from Africa to domestic laboratories," said Li Bin, minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

"Without a biosafety level-4 laboratory, we have no chance to experiment with live viruses or to test viruses on animals, despite the fact that we have been researching diagnosis techniques and therapies for Ebola for eight years using individual genes or proteins," said Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan P4 Laboratory.

Ten national-level research institutes in China have carried out studies on Ebola diagnosis techniques with a view to developing diagnostic reagents and a vaccine, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said at an earlier news conference.

The central government approved the P4 laboratory in 2003 after the SARS outbreak.

In October 2004, China signed a cooperation agreement on the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases with France, which was followed by a succession of supplementary agreements.