MOSCOW, Oct 27 (AFP) - Two Russian women died of swine flu, officials said on Tuesday, in the first deaths from the A(H1N1) virus confirmed by Moscow.

The two women, whose ages were given as 29 and 50, died in Russia's far eastern city of Chita, chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko told the Interfax and RIA-Novosti news agencies.

"Both had a confirmed diagnosis of A(H1N1), both had pneumonia," Onishchenko was quoted as saying.

The government of the Zabaikalsky region of Russia, where Chita is located, said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that two women had died with a preliminary diagnosis of swine flu.

It added that one of them was in the late stages of pregnancy and that doctors had been unable to save the fetus.

The names of the women were not given. Onishchenko said the 50-year-old had died last Thursday.

In September, the head of a Russian medical academy said that a doctor had died of swine flu in what would have been Russia's first death from the global pandemic, but the health ministry later denied the report.

Russia has recorded more than 1,300 cases of swine flu, according to health officials.

At least 4,999 people have died from swine flu infections worldwide since April, when an outbreak was first reported in Mexico, according to the World Health Organisation. (AFP)