Under the new rules, nonresident pregnant women will be charged HK$39,000 for delivery services - up from HK$20,000 - while heavily pregnant women will be refused entry at all of the territory's checkpoints unless they have an advance booking at a local hospital.

A Hong Kong resident, surnamed Ng, complained that his mainland wife was turned away from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which rejected his request to pay the amount by installments. "The new fee is too high and is unfair to us," Ng said.

Another pregnant mainland woman, surnamed Yeung, who failed to gain admission to the same hospital, said the new charges impose a financial burden on her.

A government spokesman said Thursday a total of 785 pregnant women were questioned by immigration officers at border checkpoints from January 24 to 31. Forty-nine of them were refused entry for failing to meet immigration requirements.

Senior officials of the Hospital Authority, including chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk and chief executive Shane Solomon, were at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Thursday morning to inspect the progress of the operation.

"The operation has gone off very smoothly," said Beatrice Cheng Shun-yan, the authority's chief manager.

She said the new measures will ensure that Hong Kong women will not be deprived of proper services.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said Thursday the continued influx of pregnant women from the mainland is an issue "Hong Kong people find disturbing."

He pledged to allocate additional resources to ensure that adequate and advanced medical services are available for all local expectant mothers.

According to the authority, public hospitals can handle about 42,000 deliveries this year - 30,000 for local women and 12,000 for nonresidents.

Last month the average number of nonlocal pregnant women who gave birth at public hospitals was 18 a day - down 37 percent from December 2006. A total of 803 babies were born to nonlocal women at public hospitals last month.

Meanwhile, maternity wards at Tuen Mun Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin have been fully booked until May, while those at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong and Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been booked for the next two months.

The new measures were introduced after local mothers staged a protest last November, claiming the influx of pregnant women from the mainland had seriously affected services at local hospitals, with some being forced to sleep on corridors.

The Court of Final Appeal ruled in 2001 that children born to Chinese nationals in Hong Kong have the right of abode in the territory.