China has insisted it is dealing responsibly with the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the country.
SARS has killed at least 65 people and infected 1,445 in mainland China - nearly half of the world's cases.
China has refused to revise its SARS death toll despite more evidence that not all cases in China were being reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and a fresh report the disease was spreading.
Hong Kong, the second most affected area after mainland China, said the virus had killed four more people and infected 29 others. Australia reported its first three probable cases, and India confirmed its first infection.
Southeast Asian leaders will meet in Bangkok on April 29th to hammer out ways of tackling the virus that has struck a serious below to their economies.
The virus that causes SARS has been carried by air travellers to around 23 countries, infecting more than 3,400 people and killing about 160 worldwide.
The first place it appeared outside Guangdong province, China, was in neighbouring Hong Kong, which has nearly as many cases and, as of today, the same death toll as mainland China.
Sixty five of the 1,268 people who have caught the disease in the former British colony have died, including some in a high-rise complex where more than 300 came down with it.
The WHO confirmed SARS, which is contagious, sometimes fatal and has no known cure, was caused by a member of the coronavirus family never before seen in humans.
Experts said they were optimistic the disease could be controlled using existing measures, but the coronavirus family tended to mutate relatively quickly.