If Beijing does not have any new cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) for 20 days, it will not be regarded as part of the affected areas by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Wednesday's China Daily.

Henk Bekedam, WHO's representative in China, said the WHO has not considered lifting the travel advisory against Beijing since the capital is still reporting new SARS cases or suspected cases most days and many patients remain in hospital.

"What we want to see is the level of risk being controlled, then we can lift them, maybe in weeks," Bekedam said.

The representative also gave four criteria for lifting the travel advisory: number of cases currently treated in hospitals to be fewer than 60, number of new patients to be fewer than five for a number of days, no local transmission and exporting of cases to other regions.