Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) reported no new SARS cases on Sunday, paving the way for the World Health Organization to remove the once-hard-hit region from its list of SARS-infected areas.

Sunday was the 20th day since the last confirmed SARS patient in Hong Kong was hospitalized, and WHO was expected to remove Hong Kong from its list as soon as Monday, health officials said.

Taiwan - which once had the third worst outbreak of the pneumonia-like disease after Hong Kong and the mainland - was hoping to meet the same goal: On Sunday, the island marked its fifth straight day without a new reported infection.

And the outbreak appeared to be receding in China. In the mainland, the number of patients currently with SARS fell below 100 on Sunday for the first time in months - down to 97 from 123 the previous day, the Health Ministry said. No new SARS fatalities or infections were reported - the 11th day without new cases in Beijing.

The Chinese government plans to lift a ban on tourist travel to Tibet on July 1, Xinhua News Agency reported. The ban was imposed on Tibet and other western regions June 25 to prevent the spread of SARS into poor regions without adequate health care.

Tibet has reported no SARS deaths or cases.

MAKING A STATEMENT

Hong Kong has had 296 deaths from severe acute respiratory syndrome and a total of 1,755 people infected. As of Sunday, 49 people were still hospitalized.

To demonstrate Hong Kong's safety, Secretary for Economic Development Stephen Ip visited a hotel where the Hong Kong's outbreak began spreading in February.

Accompanied by a group of hoteliers, Ip toured the room on the ninth floor of the Metropole Hotel where a Chinese mainland medical professor had stayed and infected guests.

Also Sunday, the second hospital doctor killed by SARS in Hong Kong was remembered at a funeral attended by the SAR leaders and grieving colleagues and friends.

Dr. Cheng Ha-yan, 30, who died June 1, had volunteered to work in a SARS ward, but was infected by a patient who initially had no obvious symptoms of the virus at Tai Po Hospital.

Colleagues and friends - most wearing surgical masks - streamed in to pay their respects at Cheng's funeral, where an altar was adorned with candles, white flowers and a picture of Cheng.