The objective of this clinical trial is to evaluate the efficacy of the combination of Peg-IFN alfa-2a at a dose of 180 mcg administered subcutaneously per week and ETV 0.5 mg daily for 24 weeks followed by ETV 0.5 mg daily monotherapy for an additional 120 weeks versus ETV 0.5 mg daily monotherapy for 144 weeks in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B. It will be an open-label, randomized, comparative, multi-center clinical trial. The recruited patients will be equally randomized into two treatment groups. Treatment-free follow-up period will be 48 weeks in both groups of patients. All subjects will be assessed for loss of HBeAg, presence of anti-HBe, loss of HBsAg, presence of anti-HBs, suppression of HBV DNA, and normalization of serum ALT at the end of treatment and end of follow-up. Genotypic and virologic resistance to ETV will also be assessed at baseline and at end of years 1, 2 and 3.