Key officials in the Government and the Hospital Authority tried their best to control last year's spread of SARS, an unknown disease at that time, Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang says, adding they rose to the challenge in a remarkable way.

"Even if there were shortcomings, there is no evidence that any official was guilty of dereliction of duty, did not give their best or had a credibility problem," he said.

Speaking at a motion debate in the Legislative Council on its Select Committee's SARS report, Mr Tsang said many of the problems were rapidly put right by key health officials, while others were compensated for by the extraordinary hard work of people at all levels of the system - in difficult circumstances.

"It was due to such efforts that SARS was eventually brought under control in Hong Kong," he said.

Responding to members' concern over the inadequacy of the SARS trust fund, Mr Tsang said the Government will closely monitor the situation and will apply for additional funding from LegCo's Finance Committee if needs arise.

He stressed that remarkable progress has been made since the release SARS Expert Committee's report in October 2003, saying that Hong Kong is better prepared to combat any epidemic than it was a year ago.

On the criticisms raised by LegCo's SARS report on the former Director of Health Dr Margaret Chan, Mr Tsang said they are not sufficient to support the amended motion asking to denounce her.

Dr Chan helped improve HK's public health

He said Dr Chan had contributed much to improve Hong Kong's public health during her 30 years' of public service.

As Dr Chan has already left the Government, there is nothing the administration can do to take follow-up action, he added.

Commenting on public responses to Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong's resignation, Mr Tsang said the issue has aroused a deeper reflection and discussion in the community on the culture of accountability.