Patients will be randomly assigned in 3:3:1 ratio to three treatment arms. In the standard treatment group (Arm C), patients will be treated for 24 weeks independently of the HCV RNA status at week 4 with Peginterferon alpha-2a at a dose of 180 mcg weekly in combination with oral ribavirin administered at a dosage of 800 mg/day.

Patients enrolled in Arm C will be treated for standard 24 weeks duration of treatment.

Patients enrolled in Arm A will receive Peginterferon alpha-2a at a dosage of 180 mcg weekly in combination with oral ribavirin administered at a dosage of 1000 mg/day for patients with a body weight < 75 kg or 1200 mg/day for those with a body weight > 75 kg.

Patients with week 4 viral clearance (labelled as rapid virological responders, RVR) will be allocated to 12 week treatment duration (Arm A), whereas those without RVR will be treated for 24 weeks (Arm A)

Patients enrolled in Arm B will receive Peginterferon alpha-2a at a dosage of 180 mcg weekly in combination with oral ribavirin administered at a dosage of 800 mg/day.

Patients with week 4 viral clearance (labelled as rapid virological responders, RVR) will be allocated to 12 week treatment duration (Arm B), whereas those without RVR will be treated for 48 weeks (Arm B)

Administration of ribavirin at a dosage of 1000 or 1200 mg per day based on body weight < or > 75 kg for 24 weeks (Arm A).

Treatment duration of 48 weeks with standard fixed dose of ribavirin (800 mg/day) (Arm B).

These schedules will be compared with diagram of standard therapy with 800 mg daily of ribavirin for 24 weeks (Arm C)

The primary measure of efficacy will be HCV RNA not detectable in serum samples 24 weeks after the end of therapy (SVR).

proportion of patients with undetectable HCV RNA 4 weeks after the start of treatment