Beijing: China, the worst-hit nation by SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), on June 18 assured India that the upcoming visit by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Beijing is "safe", as the epidemic outbreak has been brought under effective control.

"Visiting Beijing is safe now as we have effectively controlled the outbreak of SARS in the city," the general director of the Beijing SARS treatment command centre of the Beijing Health Bureau, Han Demin, said in an interview.

Vajpayee, who will be visiting China from June 22 to 27, would be one of the first world leaders to visit the country in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic outbreak that has killed 799 people world-wide and 346 in mainland China alone.

Over 190 countries participating in the World Health Assembly – the supreme governing body of the World Health Organisation (WHO) – which met in Geneva in May had unanimously approved a resolution, which recognised SARS as "the first severe infectious disease to emerge in the 21st century."

Han said Vajpayee and his delegation need not worry about the SARS situation in China as the situation has been controlled with none of the Chinese cities reporting confirmed cases of the infectious disease for several days now.

The number of confirmed SARS patients in Beijing's SARS-only hospitals have shrunk to around 200 from 2,500 during the peak period in late April and May, he said.

PTI