Singapore ? The World Health Organization said Monday that SARS appeared to have peaked in some of the countries hit hardest by the disease, but the virus was still spreading in China and to new locations.

David Heymann, chief of communicable diseases for organization, said the epidemic’s worst days appeared to be over in Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, where more than half the known deaths from the virus occurred during the last six weeks.

But the pneumonia-like illness is continuing to infect more patients in China despite stepped-up efforts by the government to halt its spread. China reported 203 new cases Monday and eight fatalities, which brought the country’s death toll to 139. Worldwide, the virus has now infected about 5,000 people and killed more than 330.

In Bangkok, Thailand, where Asian leaders will be meeting today to discuss the crisis, Heymann said SARS seems to have peaked in most places around March 15, except in China, where it is still on the increase.

Also, Indonesia reported its first probable death from SARS, a 56-year-old Taiwanese businessman who arrived in the country nearly two weeks ago and died Saturday in a hospital in the capital, Jakarta. An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death.

Indonesian health authorities said this was only the third probable SARS case officials had discovered. But some expressed concern that the disease might have entered the country undetected and could rapidly gain a foothold. Indonesia has the world’s fourth-largest population and an inadequate, poorly funded health care system.

“If we imagine SARS entering Indonesia, it is frightening,” said Health Ministry spokeswoman Mariani Reksoprodjo.

With the businessman’s death, Indonesia became the sixth country in Southeast Asia to report a probable fatality from the disease, fully known as severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS deaths have been reported in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Vietnam became the first country in the world to contain the disease when it went 20 days — twice the incubation period — without a new reported case, WHO announced earlier Monday.

Also Monday, WHO announced that the worst seemed to be over for Canada, but a WHO advisory against travel to Toronto that angered Canadian officials remained in place. The Canadian government said it would increase SARS screening procedures at airports and send a delegation today to Geneva to ask WHO to lift the warning.