Bangkok  - Thailand will host a meeting of South-East Asian health ministers next week to discuss the threat of swine flu, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thursday.

The meeting is expected to be held May 7 to 8, Thai Public Health Ministry's deputy permanent secretary Dr Siriporn Karnchana said, although other sources said the date was not yet finalized.

Thailand is the current chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) that groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Bangkok - Thai shares rose 2.28 per cent in value Wednesday on better corporate news both abroad and domestically, analysts said. The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) ended at 483.50, up 10.78 points or 2.28 per cent.

"Investors were encouraged to buy by good news from the US, such as Chrysler has announced it will not go bankrupt and fewer US banks will need to raise their registered capital," Adkinsons Securities analyst Mongkol Pjuangpaetha said.

Bangkok - Thailand's property sector, hard-hit by the global recession and political instability since the last quarter of 2008, has yet to witness the kind of fire sales seen in the Asian crisis of 1997, Jones Lang LaSalle (Thailand) said Wednesday. While the economic slowdown has led to falling office rents in Bangkok, to date there have been few investments in distressed assets largely because owners are not distressed, the international property consultant said in their latest property review.

Bangkok  - Lab tests conducted on a 42-year-old Thai woman who was quarantined after showing swine-flu-like symptoms have shown her free of the virus, hospital officials said Wednesday.

The woman, who had attended a seminar in Mexico from April 3 to 11, was admitted to hospital and put under quarantine Tuesday with a light fever, was found to be suffering from ordinary human flu, Chulalongkorn Hospital virus expert Dr Yong Phoosuwan told a press conference.

Like other Asian countries, Thailand has been swift to respond to the swine flu scare.

Bangkok - A 42-year-old Thai civil servant who attended a seminar in Mexico earlier this month has been admitted to hospital and kept under quarantine over a possible swine flu infection, hospital sources said Tuesday. Chulalongkorn Hospital deputy-director Dr Thirapong Charoenwhit said the woman patient was suffering a light fever and has been sick since April 23.

The woman, whose name was not disclosed to the press, had attended a seminar in Mexico from April 3 to 11.