A 10-year-old girl has been infected with the bird flu virus, China′s official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting the Ministry of Health.

The girl, surnamed Tang, from Ziyuan county of southern Guangxi region has been ill with fever and pneumonia since November 23, and has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus, the report said.

She has been under emergency treatment in hospital, and people who were in close contact with her are under observation but no abnormal symptoms have been observed in others.

Two people have been killed in recent weeks in China by the virus, which scientists fear could mutate into a form that could be passed easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic. The victims were women from the eastern Anhui province.

Bird flu is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia where it has killed almost 70 people.

There have been more than 20 outbreaks of bird flu across China since mid-October and the Beijing government has promised resources and openness in the fight against the deadly disease after being widely criticised after a cover-up of the SARS virus in 2003.

It has culled 20 million birds and announced plans to vaccinate billions more. But Health Minister Gao Qiang has admitted that ill-equipped local doctors may be unable to detect H5N1.

The central and regional governments have sent disease control teams into Ziyuan county where the girl lives and experts are looking into the source of the virus as no outbreaks had been reported there previously, the report said.

China also reported the case to the World Health Organisation, nearby Hong Kong and Macao, and some other countries, the report said.