Beijing: China on April 20 said there were 339 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) cases in Beijing and that 18 people had died from the virus in the capital, the Health Ministry announced in a statement.

It said there were an additional 402 "suspected" cases in Beijing.

Prior to the announcement, authorities had admitted to just 44 cases in Beijing with four fatalities.

Of the 339 confirmed cases, five were foreigners.

China came clean after intense international pressure, particularly from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which last week accused the government of covering up the extent of SARS in the capital.

The Ministry said there were 353 people being treated in military hospitals, 235 in local hospitals and 153 in "other" hospitals.

The statement gave three explanations as to why the extent of the outbreak had not been reported before.

It said SARS was a new disease and it had proven difficult to come up with a diagnosis and that Beijing had lot of hospitals and patients were scattered across the city.

But it also admitted the Health Ministry did not prepare well enough.

President Hu Jintao and other top leaders on April 17 stepped into the growing crisis over China's handling of the outbreak, demanding all levels of government fully report the crisis.

Agencies