There is no cure for Ebola

Samples taken to the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases were negative, WHO spokesman Dr Welile Shashas said.

Health officials had said the man, who died in the resort town of Victoria Falls, had signs of the disease.

Ebola is highly contagious and kills 90% of those infected.

The negative results were confirmed by both Zimbabwe's and South Africa's health ministries.

Zimbabwe's neighbours had been put on alert over the suspected Ebola case.

The man had reportedly arrived in Zimbabwe from Angola via Namibia and Botswana.

Haemorrhages

"We have finished testing the samples and they are negative for any haemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola, Marburg disease and Congo and rift valley fevers," Lucille Blumberg a doctor at the institute told AFP news agency.

The Angolan trader died in Victoria Falls

There is no known cure for Ebola, which causes high fever, diarrhoea and bleeding from the nose and gums, and can induce massive internal haemorrhages.

It is spread through direct contact with body fluids of an infected person and is thought to be contracted by humans when they eat the flesh of infected animals.

A recent outbreak of the disease left 29 dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which borders Angola.

The virus was first discovered in DR Congo in 1976.