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WASHINGTON, Friday (AFP) The United States renewed a week-old warning to reconsider travel to China due to fears over killer SARS pneumonia, alerting US citizens to tough new measures enacted by Chinese authorities to curb the spread of the disease.

The State Department, which issued a similar warning on April 3 and allowed non-essential diplomats at its six posts in China to leave because of the illness, said the new Chinese restrictions affected anyone who displayed SARS-like symptoms.

"Any individual in China, including foreigners, who displays SARS-like symptoms will be sent to a hospital designated for SARS patients until the contagious phase has passed," the department said in a statement.

"The patient cannot be visited by his/her own doctor, by family members, or by US consular officials," it said, adding that medical evacuation from China was currently impossible as commercial airlines and air ambulance services are refusing to transport SARS patients.

China, which has been slammed for its slow reaction to the epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), pledged earlier Thursday to adopt all necessary measures to secure the health of foreigners in the country.

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