The World Health Organization removed its travel advisory in four Chinese provinces today in a sign that the SARS virus is slowly being contained.

The WHO has taken all Chinese cities except Beijing and Taiwan off the list of areas with recent transmissions, including Guangdong, where SARS is believed to have originated in November.

Only Beijing and Taiwan still have warnings against all but essential travel, the WHO said in Geneva. At the same time, the WHO upgraded the threat in Toronto because a previously unidentified case of SARS is believed to have been imported.

Because the Guangdong, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Jiangsu, Shanxi and Tainjin regions have had no new cases for the last 20 days, they are no longer a potential threat to travelers, the WHO said.