The group of 52 students and teachers were quarantined after four students tested positive for the A(H1N1) virus after arriving in Beijing for a study tour, the British Council said earlier.

"It was a bit of surprise to be detained at the airport. We have been in a state of shock," Ian Tyrell, one of the teachers leading the tour, told AFP by telephone from the hotel where the group was quarantined.

Tyrell said there were some Americans and other nationalities under quarantine at the hotel, some of them students, but he could not provide a specific number.

"They are having a good experience. They are still excited to be in China," Tyrell said.

He added that two of the children who tested positive for swine flu had since rejoined their groups in quarantine, while two others were "doing well" in a Beijing hospital.

China has launched aggressive measures to try and detect swine flu, including temperature checks on foreign flights into the country, and has quarantined dozens of foreign nationals since the virus first emerged in May.

There have been around 1,500 positive cases of the virus in China, the health ministry said on its website, but no deaths have been reported.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, authorities reported its first death linked to swine flu after a 49-year-old man who was diagnosed with the virus died in hospital.

"He died of a heart attack, contributed to by severe pneumonia with underlying influenza A infection," the ministry of health said in a statement.

The man, who suffered from diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, was diagnosed with swine flu after he was admitted to a public hospital on Thursday, the statement said.

Georgia said it had confirmed its first case of the virus in a Georgian woman who had arrived from London.

In a separate incident in China, a British student was quarantined along with a teacher for two days after she showed a heightened temperature when she arrived in Beijing this week, the British Council said.

The student showed no flu symptoms and was later allowed to rejoin the group.

And in Italy, the start of the next school year could be put back to try to reduce the spread of swine flu.

"A possible postponement of the start of classes has not been ruled out," deputy Italian health minister Ferrucio Fazio was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency. No decision had yet been taken, he added.

In North Africa, two new cases were confirmed Saturday in Morocco, bringing to 28 the number who have come down with the virus in the kingdom, its health ministry in Rabat said.

One of the patients was a Moroccan woman aged 32 recently back from Britain, and the other was an 18-year-old American who had come over from Spain.

In the French region of Britanny, officials said a female American tourist was admitted to hospital in Avranches after tests determined that she had the virus.

European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou predicted Saturday that 60 million people across the European Union would need priority vaccination against swine flu, a report said.

The commissioner was speaking to Portuguese news agency Lusa while on a tour of member states within the 27-member bloc.

She said the numbers needing jabs in groups most at risk had been estimated at 60 million by the EU's executive arm, but warned: "There won't be vaccinations for everyone."

In the last table released by the World Health Organisation on July 6, the UN agency had recorded 94,512 laboratory-confirmed cases in 136 countries and territories since April, including 429 deaths.

The WHO said Friday, however, it would stop giving figures on the numbers infected with A(H1N1) to allow countries to channel resources into close monitoring of the spread of the disease.

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