Cairo  - Egyptian Minister of Health Hatem el-Gabaly confirmed on Tuesday that five more students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) have tested positive for the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.

With the five new cases, the number of AUC students tested positive for the virus has reached seven.

The university on Monday had quarantined a student dormitory for one week upon detection of the first two cases, and on Tuesday extended the closure for a further week, el-Gabaly said. Classes at the private university campus have been cancelled.

The seven students are hospitalized and they are in a stable condition, a health ministry spokesman said.

The new cases were detected as the health ministry tested all residents of the dormitory for the H1N1 virus.

All the other tested cases in the dormitory, home to some least 240 students, were proven negative for the virus, the statement read.

On June 2, an Egyptian-American girl returning to the country tested positive for the virus. Hers was the first confirmed case of this strain of the flu in Egypt.

Egypt last month announced that it had culled the nation's pigs out of fear of the virus.(dpa)