Beijing was the city worst-hit by a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak last year that caused almost 800 deaths from some 8,000 infections, mainly in Asia.

Some 349 of the deaths were in China, with the last reported fatality on July 27.

The health ministry Saturday confirmed the condition of a researcher at the nation's center for disease control, which leads China's SARS research, who had been under observation for suspected SARS.

The researcher, identified only by his surname Yang, had been listed as a suspect case since April 22, but test results Friday showed he had SARS anti-bodies, confirming the disease, the ministry said on its website.

With the new case, China has reported six confirmed incidents of SARS and three suspect cases in the latest outbreak that began in late March.

All the cases can be traced back to the Institute of Virology in Beijing where the initial case involved a researcher, health officials have said.

The laboratory has since been shut down while investigations are carried out.

The World Health Organisation has sent teams of experts to China to work on controlling the outbreak and investigate the laboratory, but continues to maintain that the epidemic did not pose a public health danger.

"We still don't view this as a major threat to public health because all of the cases so far can still be traced immunologically to the national Institute of Virology in Beijing," WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng told journalists in Geneva late Friday.

"We are reassured that we haven't seen this pop up in other regions of the country which are not linked to these people," Cheng said.

The initial case in the latest outbreak has been identified as a woman named Song, who worked at the institute in early March and returned to her hometown in eastern Anhui province where she infected her mother.

Her mother, who died on April 19, was only confirmed Friday as China's first SARS casualty since July 27 following a battery tests run on specimens taken from her.

Since the disease returned to haunt China, around 700 people have been put under medical observation in Beijing, with hundreds more isolated in Anhui.

According to Saturday's ministry outbreak report, 65 of those have ended their stay under medical observation, while Song, who is being treated in Anhui province, is in stable condition and has had a normal temperature for eight consecutive days.

Two of the other three confirmed patients in Beijing remain stable, while one elderly woman is in critical condition but making improvements, the report said.

TERRA.WIRE