BEIJING, Nov 17 (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Thursday it sees no evidence of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in China's newly reported cases in people.

"There is not any evidence for human transmission so far," said Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative in China. "If there would be something like that, we would expect more people would be unexpectedly dying of very severe pneumonia."

The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported China's first human cases of bird flu. It said there were two confirmed cases -- a woman who died and a 9-year-old boy who recovered -- and one suspected case -- the boy's 12-year-old sister, who died.

Asked whether there was any sign that China might be facing a human pandemic of the virus, Bekedam said, "If there's evidence of human-to-human transmission, there will be small clusters. We are not at that stage."