Like previous human victims of the H5N1 virus in China, she apparently contracted the disease in an area that has not officially reported previous outbreaks among birds.

The health ministry said "no H5N1 bird flu outbreak in animals was detected in the area where the new case was reported", Xinhua reported.

Zhou "showed symptoms of fever and pneumonia" on Dec. 6 and was hospitalised two days later, the report said.

Initial tests for the H5N1 virus were negative. But later tests by provincial investigators and China's Centre of Disease Control showed positive results, Xinhua said.

H5N1 is the bird flu virus that scientists fear may mutate into a strain that can spread easily among people, unleashing a human pandemic that could kill millions.

"Zhou has been confirmed to be infected with bird flu in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organisation and the Chinese government," the health ministry said in its statement.

The H5N1 virus has killed more than 70 people in Asia since late 2003 and is endemic in poultry flocks across parts of the region.

SWEEPING MEASURES

China, along with Vietnam, has suffered numerous outbreaks in poultry since October and Beijing has launched sweeping measures to stop the virus spreading and infecting more people, including a campaign to vaccinate all domestic poultry.

China's latest human bird flu death comes after two fatalities from the virus in Anhui province in eastern China.

WHO experts also believe a 12-year old girl in the southern province of Hunan very probably died from bird flu in November, but China does not include her in its tally.

China has also recorded two non-fatal human infections in Hunan, two in the northeast province Liaoning, one in the southern region of Guangxi, and another two weeks ago in Jiangxi, a province next to Fujian.

The Xinhua report did not offer any details of the Zhou's work or background; nor did it say how she may have contracted the H5N1 virus. Previous infections have involved people who had close contact with poultry.

Health officials in Sanming have taken steps to "check the spread of the virus" and are monitoring anybody who had close contact with Zhou, said Xinhua.

So far no other people around her have shown "abnormal clinical symptoms", it added.

Sanming is an inland area about 170 km (105 miles) from the coast. The Chinese health ministry has notified the World Health Organisation, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan -- the self-governed island that lies opposite Fujian province.

Fujian has not reported any outbreaks among birds.

But in early 2003, two Hong Kong residents who travelled to Fujian were diagnosed with H5N1 after they returned home, including a 33 year-old man who died. One of the man's daughters had earlier died of pneumonia in a Fujian hospital.