BEIJING (AP) - A farmer in southeast China has contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, state media reported today.

Xinhua News Agency said it was China's first human case of bird flu since Jan. 10, when the government said a 37-year-old farmer in Anhui province in eastern China had contracted bird flu but had recovered.

In the latest case, in coastal Fujian province, Xinhua said a 44-year-old farmer with the surname Li was diagnosed on Feb. 18 after he developed a fever and began coughing.

Xinhua said tests by the provincial disease control and prevention center showed Li had been infected with the H5N1 virus strain and that the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the result on Feb. 27.

The report did not say whether the farmer worked with poultry or if infected birds were found. Human cases of bird flu have been traced to birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that can pass between people, triggering a pandemic.

China reported its first human case of bird flu in 2005, while the virus was tearing through Vietnam and Thailand. The government disclosed last year that new tests on the body of a 24-year-old soldier who died in 2003 confirmed that he succumbed to the disease.

China has suffered 14 human deaths from bird flu and dozens of cases in the country's vast poultry flocks. Millions of birds have been destroyed in order to contain outbreaks on farms.

The H5N1 virus has been found in migratory birds in China.

Xinhua said China's Health Ministry has notified the World Health Organization about the case.