Beijing authorities have banned all live poultry from other parts of the country from entering the capital, after a woman died from the H5N1 bird flu virus on Monday morning.

"Only poultry certified safe by the city's animal disease control authorities will be allowed into the city," the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Beijing municipal bureau of agriculture also issued an alert yesterday to intensify the monitoring of trade in live poultry, while animal disease control personnel have launched inspections of the city's slaughterhouses and poultry farms.