Leong, the chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, announced his decision to step down to reporters after a five-hour extraordinary meeting of the body's board.

His resignation came after Hong Kong health minister Yeoh Eng-kiong quit on Wednesday. Both were among five officials criticised for their response to last year's Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome crisis which left 299 people dead.

Neither Leong nor Yeoh had indicated a willingness to resign when the results of the six-month inquiry were released earlier this week, provoking an outcry from the public and families of victims.

Leong tendered his resignation Wednesday but his offer was unanimously rejected by the Hospital Authority board, which said all its members would follow suit if he stepped down.

"After a night of thinking, although the authority asked me to reconsider my decision and a lot of people have told me not to go, I have to take the responsibility so I decided to hand in my resignation letter," he said at a press conference after the meeting.

He said other board members also threatened to resign but he had convinced them to stay.

"(The board members) said they will hold responsibility together... I almost had to beg them to stay," he said standing alongside other board members. Some of them appeared to be in tears.

"I hope this ongoing SARS debate will now end so we can look forward to the future," he added.

Leong said he would stay on in his position until his replacement is found.

The 434-page report released on Monday blamed Yeoh and other senior officials for not responding quickly enough to SARS after it first appeared in neighbouring Guangdong province in southern China early last year.

Leong was specifically criticised for failing to make a contingency plan to deal with large-scale outbreaks.

Yeoh's resignation on Wednesday was hailed by the city's medics and patients' rights groups.

The move reflected well on the government, with many newspaper editorials praising Yeoh for upholding a system introduced two years ago to make Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's administration more answerable to the public.

The South China Morning Post said Yeoh's resignation demonstrated the public's power and the credibility of the system set up to hold ministers accountable for gaffes in their portfolios.

"By making an honourable exit, the health minister may have defended the integrity of the accountability system and averted a political crisis."

Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily echoed the view. "Although (his resignation) came a little too late, at least it shows a spirit of accountability for the public and families of the SARS victims."

The Action Group on Medical Policy, an organisation made up of medicine professionals, welcomed the move.

"(Yeoh's) whole performance meant he could not live up to his post. He had a responsibility to take. His resignation should help ease the resentment among the families of SARS victims," said its spokesman Kwok Ka-ki.

In addition to the deaths, SARS infected 1,755 people in Hong Kong, devastating the economy as well as helping to fuel the former British colony's worst political crisis since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

TERRA.WIRE