ROME, Oct 3: Health authorities in Italy have ordered urgent tests to be carried out on the body of a young woman to see if she died of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), Italian media reported on Sunday.

Rossella Uttaro, 25, a singer and actress, died on Friday at Latina near Rome. She had recently returned from China where she had been working for six months. The head of the emergency department responsible for issuing the death certificate mentioned "a suspicion of Sars".

The tests will be carried out at the Spallanzi Institute for the Research and Care of Infectious Diseases in Rome, which will report back as soon as possible, its director Salvatore Squarcione said.

Sars first appeared in eastern Asia in 2003 and led to some 800 deaths, mainly in China and Hong Kong. More than 8,000 people were infected. -AFP