ISLAMABAD, April 20: President Pervez Musharraf’s scheduled visit to China next month has been postponed as Beijing put off an Asian economic forum meeting due to outbreak of killer SARS.

The president’s visit has been postponed until November.

Musharraf was invited to visit China to address the second conference of Boao economic forum scheduled in Beijing for May 18-19.

APP quoted a Boao official as saying in Beijing Sunday that the conference had been put off due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus.

“The decision to this effect has been taken, since the participation of some foreign guests was doubtful in wake of the recent outbreak of SARS,” the Chinese official said.

The organizers of Boao Forum for Asia, an Asian equivalent of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, were now considering re-convening the conference in October or November.

In Beijing on Friday, forum organizers said it had not yet been decided if the meeting would be postponed.

The Boao, which meets annually, was last convened in April 2002.

The nationwide death toll from SARS in China now stands at 79 with 2,209 confirmed or suspected cases of the illness, the Chinese health ministry said.

There were 339 SARS cases in Beijing and 18 people had died from the virus in the Chinese capital, the health ministry announced in a statement Sunday.

Beijing also cancelled the week-long May Day holidays to prevent the spread of the epidemic. —AFP