"The number of cases is going down," WHO team spokesman Chris Powell said.

Most of the infections (1,153 out of 1,190) and deaths (40 out of 46) on the mainland had occurred in Guangdong by the end of last month, but the number of new patients has decreased to less than 10 a day from about 60-70 during the early stages of the outbreak, according to statistics.

The seven-strong WHO team arrived in Guangzhou yesterday around noon, and met with local health workers and officials in the afternoon. The main purpose of the team's trip is to gather information for further investigation.

"There are many, many steps before you figure out where a disease started," Powell said.

"The WHO is not a police force. We can't bang the table and say: 'Do this, do that'," he said.

"What's important now is we have a flow of information."

Local health workers seemed to have been very experienced in dealing with the disease and had gathered a great deal of valuable information, Powell said.

But finding cures to the deadly disease could be a time-consuming and tough task, he said, as the virus is as complicated as that for AIDS, he said. During their six-days in Guangdong, WHO doctors will visit several hospitals in Guangzhou and other cities, such as Zhongshan and Foshan.

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