BEIJING (AP) — Surgeons from around the world gathering at a conference in Beijing are praising a policy adopted by China last year to stop harvesting prisoners' organs.

In voicing approval of the policy on Monday, doctors from the World Health Organization and the Montreal-based Transplantation Society described meeting with Chinese doctors and patients and observing signs that China's system for sourcing organs has changed.

In a sign of its symbolic importance, the conference took place in the Great Hall of the People, the ornate building next to Tiananmen Square that typically hosts foreign leaders and ceremonial Communist Party gatherings.

Critics remain skeptical that China has stopped relying on executed inmates, given its severe shortages of organs and a long-standing black market in "transplant tourism."