The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it had lifted its warning on travel to the Chinese capital Beijing, the only place left on its SARS blacklist.
The United Nations health agency also took Beijing, once the most SARS-affected city in the world, off its list of areas where the respiratory disease was continuing to spread, a spokesman said.
The decision - the latest sign that the new disease that spread quickly worldwide is being controlled - leaves only Taiwan and Toronto, Canada, as places where the WHO fears continuing contagion.
The flu-like disease has infected 5,326 people in China and killed 347 of them since it first appeared in the southern province of Guangdong last November. Air travellers spread the disease to some 30 countries.
Taiwan said today it would ask the WHO to remove the island from the list of SARS-affected places later this week after another day with no new infections or deaths.