Wu Yi, minister of health and vice premier, said the huge movement of people throughout the country in the run up to the New Year, or Spring Festival, holiday posed a challenge in preventing the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

"The days ahead is the critical period for the prevention of SARS," Wu was quoted by the official China News Service as saying. "During the Spring Festival, the movement of people is great."

Her warning came a day after China's health ministry confirmed that two suspected SARS patients in southern Guangdong province had the disease, bringing to three the number of people struck down in China this year.

Millions of people are expected to take crowded buses, trains and planes in the next two weeks to return home for family reunions in the world's biggest annual migration.

Crowded spaces and the cold weather are ideal for the spread of the respiratory disease, which survives better in cold climates and is spread through droplets.

Wu urged people throughout the country to "pay close attention" to SARS and step up disease monitoring.

"Officials in charge of quarantining (people showing symptoms) as well as railway, civil aviation, transportation officials and others must strictly carry out government regulations to prevent SARS from spreading across regions (in China)," Wu said.

The two confirmed cases were a 20-year-old waitress who recovered and was released from hospital Saturday and a 35-year-old businessman who has been isolated at a Guangzhou city hospital for about three weeks and is also recovering.

Earlier this month, a 32-year-old-television journalist became China's first SARS case in six months but has since recovered.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday China had defeated last year's outbreak of SARS, and was optimistic in a speech in which he reviewed the country's experiences and government's work last year.

"The past year was an important and unusual year in our country's development.... It was a critical test for the Chinese people ...," Wen said.

"The whole nation united as one, struggled hard and achieved a significant victory against SARS."

A cautious World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday said it was not ready to concur that the two suspected cases could be confirmed as SARS, saying it considered one of the patients a "probable" case but the other was still viewed as suspect until more blood tests were carried out.

Guangdong province's health department director Yao Zhibin, meanwhile, reassured the public there would be no repeat of last year's outbreak, which first surfaced in Guangdong in late 2002 and spreading to more than 30 countries, killing almost 800 people worldwide.

"The conditions at designated hospitals and various disease prevention and control agencies have improved. They are monitoring the changes of the epidemic all the time. They have also carried out all the prevention and preparation work," said Yao in an interview with Southern Daily.

"Therefore, we believe it's not likely that this year there will be a major outbreak like last year."

He said he did not rule out the possibility of sporadic cases or several cases leading to an outbreak in a small area.

But Yao added: "We have acquired experience and an effective method of prevention and treatment."

TERRA.WIRE