A cabinet meeting ordered a temporary reduction in the number of border checkpoints, and the provisional closing of all checkpoints where thorough medical control is impossible, Interfax reported.

"It is our duty to protect the population from this threat, for which a set of additional measures is necessary," Kasyanov told the meeting.

Russia's top public health official Gennady Onishchenko said after the meeting that there were about 25 suspected SARS cases in Russia.

Earlier on Thursday, the Russian Health Ministry said Denis Soinikov, a Russian citizen hospitalized in the town of Blagoveshchensk in Amur region had been diagnosed with SARS.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2003)