BEIJING - Mainland China on Monday reported its first confirmed case of the new H1N1 strain of flu, a man in southwestern Sichuan province who had flown home from the United States.

The 30-year-old patient is now at the Chengdu Infectious Disease Hospital and people having close contact with him are also isolated for medical observation, the official Xinhua news agency said, referring to the provincial capital.

China quarantined more than 130 of the 150 passengers aboard a flight that carried the man, Xinhua said earlier.

The man's girlfriend, father and a taxi driver had also been quarantined, the report said, which cited officials at a press conference held in the provincial capital of Chengdu.

The man took a Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota, which stopped in Tokyo and landed at Beijing. He also took a flight on Sichuan Airlines from Beijing to Chengdu.

It was not clear from the report which passengers were quarantined, though it said the man had developed symptoms of fever on the flight from Beijing to Chengdu.

The remaining passengers and others who came in contact with the man, who was studying in the U.S. state of Missouri, were being sought by authorities, said Xinhua.

The man was conscious and in stable condition, it said.

A Washington state man with H1N1 influenza died last week, health officials said, the third U.S. sufferer to die as the new flu strain confirmed in more than 2,200 Americans appeared in Japan and Australia.

On Saturday, a Mexican traveler confirmed as Hong Kong's first and only case of the new flu strain was discharged from hospital.

The former British colony has been a special administrative region of China since 1997.

Medicine China