China accounted for three quarters of all seizures ofpirated VCDs and DVDs in Asia last year in cases involving the Motion PictureAssociation (MPA), the group said on Thursday.

Reuters reported that the MPA, which represents the majorUS studios, estimates its members lose about $900m annually in potentialrevenue in the Asia-Pacific, about a quarter of the $3.5bn lost globally.

The MPA said it helped seize 50 million pirated discs inthe region, of which 37 million were confiscated in China. But that was just afraction of the total 224 million pirate and pornographic optical discs seizedin China in 2004.

'We don't like to rank the countries, but China hadabout 75 percent,' said Frank Rittman, MPA's vice president forAsia-Pacific.

The top three markets for seizures of pirate discs were China,Hong Kong and Malaysia, according to MPA statistics.

Rittman said Taiwan was making progress in finding andprosecuting pirates, but there was a shift to smaller operations that madedetection more difficult.

'While 2004 was a banner year for anti-piracyenforcement in Asia-Pacific...enforcement battles are not where the war onpiracy will be won,' said Rittman. 'Public education will be thekey.'