Singapore is likely to be the next country to be taken off a list of Sars-affected areas as it declared a cluster of suspected cases to be due to a flu infection and not the deadly virus.

In a Singapore Straits Times report today, health authorities in the republic declared they were "100 percent sure" that 54 patients at a mental hospital had not fallen ill of the atypical pneumonia disease.

Singapore, which last reported a probable Sars case o­n April 27, had expressed cautious optimism that it was o­n the way to being Sars-free until the suspected outbreak at the mental hospital last Tuesday.