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HONG KONG, Tuesday (AFP) Vietnam became the first country to successfully control an outbreak of SARS, but in neighbouring China the virus defied drastic measures to claim new victims.

Mainland China and the territory of Hong Kong reported 13 new deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, bringing the global death toll from the virus since it appeared five months ago to at least 331.

Indonesia reported a first suspected death from SARS as the health crisis brought more doom and gloom for Asia's economy, especially the crisis-wracked tourism and travel industries. Vietnam, which recorded five deaths and 63 cases of SARS, declared victory over the outbreak after going 20 days without reporting a new case.

"The SARS outbreak has been successfully contained in Vietnam," said Health Minister Tran Thi Trung Chien, warning however that tough measures were needed to prevent new cases being imported.

The World Health Organisation, the UN health agency which is guiding the global fight against the illness and has cooperated closely with Vietnam, hailed Hanoi's achievement.

"The WHO would like to congratulate Vietnam in being the first country in the world to contain an outbreak of SARS," said Pascale Brudon, the WHO's representative to the Southeast Asian nation.

"Vietnam has become the first country to be removed from the list of countries with local transmission of SARS," the WHO said in a statement received here.

As well as Vietnam, the WHO also gave an optimistic assessment for Hong Kong, Singapore and Toronto, saying that the SARS outbreak appeared to have peaked in the three cities, among the worst affected along with Beijing. Despite Vietnam's achievement, there is still no cure, vaccine or diagnostic test for SARS which begins with common flu-like symptoms and has infected more than 5,000 people in some 25 countries.

The biggest threat to Vietnam's clean bill of health comes from its giant neighbour China where SARS continued to spread, infecting another 203 people in nine different regions according to figures released Monday. More than 3,100 cases have been recorded in China, and another 2,100 suspected cases.

Since ending a cover-up of the SARS crisis 10 days ago, the Chinese authorities have taken sweeping measures to control the epidemic.

"We are receiving more and more reports now of cases in China, and it doesn't appear that it's peaked in China yet," said Heymann.

More than 8,000 people have been quarantined in Beijing - the worst hit city in China where scenes of panic have erupted in recent days - and another 1,000 have been isolated in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

The Beijing municipal government has also demanded a massive clean-up campaign targeting homes, public places and workplaces.

Meanwhile China's new health minister began work by warning officials to come clean over SARS or face punishment, as the Beijing government shut down entertainment venues in a bid to combat the virus. China's battle against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is seen as key to overcoming the global health scare caused by the illness, which claimed new victims in Canada and Singapore and continued to sow fear across the world.

Vice Premier Wu Yi, known as China's Iron Lady, took office after the resignation of Zhang Wenkang who was blamed for covering up the outbreak, which first emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in November.

A meeting of China's cabinet ordered inspection teams to be sent across the country to ensure all SARS cases were correctly recorded. The move follows international criticism of the cover-up of the scale of the epidemic.

"Any local official who is found to be neglecting his duty will be severely punished," Wu warned.

After months of official silence China has in the past week taken radical steps to control the epidemic, and US President George W. Bush spoke by telephone with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to offer encouragement.

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