Tokyo: The number of new swine-flu infections in Japan rose to 130 on Monday, the Kyodo News agency reported, citing its own calculations.

Prime Minister Taro Aso told a government task force that he had no plans to call citizens to refrain from attending meetings or going out or to scale back business because of the spread of the A(H1N1) strain of the flu virus.

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But local governments on Monday ordered all schools in the western Japanese regions of Osaka and Hyogo to suspend classes this week while kiosks at train stations were to be closed.

The number of infections had exceeded 100 within 10 days of the first cases of the swine flu being confirmed in Japan. The patients were a high school teacher and two pupils who had returned via the United States from a trip to Canada.

The US and Mexico have been the countries hardest-hit by the virus, which had infected 8,480 people in 39 countries and killed 72 as of Sunday, according to the World Health Organisation.

Special: Swine flu

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