China has outperformed India in tackling the "double-burden" of diseases that includes infectious diseases affecting the poor on the one hand and chronic lifestyle ailments typical of fast urbanisation on the other, a WHO report has said.

While India's life expectancy has shot up to 65 years in 2009, up from 61 years in 2000, China has improved the same to 74 years during the last 10 years.

Besides, China's targeted health expenditure and growing coverage of health insurance has made a remarkable dent since 2003, says a report released by the World Health Organisation ahead of the 64th World Health Assembly here.

India faces high levels of maternal and child mortality, increasing burden of infectious diseases particularly among the poor, and growing incidence of non-communicable diseases in the well-to-do sections of the middle classes, the report says.

Despite high economic growth in the last decade, India continues to be one of the highest disease-burdened countries in the world in absolute terms.

While the infant mortality is 50 per 1000 lives, the mortality of children below five years is 66 per 1000 lives.

Though the infant and child mortality has dropped steeply over the ten years, it remains still high as compared to China which has seen spectacular improvements in this area.

The infant mortality in China is about 17 per 1000 and 22 per 1000 for children below five years.

"Since 2003, China has rapidly increased health insurance which contributed to significant improvements in the health sector," Ties Boerma, director of WHO's department of health statistics and informatics.

India also faces the spectre of non-communicable diseases -- heart diseases, stroke, diabetes and cancer -- which currently make up two-thirds of all deaths globally.

The report says the increase in the non-communicable diseases in India and elsewhere is due to ageing population and spread of risk factors associated with globalisation and urbanisation and coupled with increasing use of tobacco, sedentary life styles, unhealthy diet and excessive use of alcohol.