PARIS (AFP) - SWINE flu virus mutations are spreading in Europe, French health officials said on Friday as the World Health Organisation reported a leap in deaths from the disease by more than 1,000 in a week.

Two patients who were infected by a mutation that was also recently detected in Norway have died in France, the government's Health Surveillance Institute (InVS) said in a statement.

'This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue,' said the statement.

'For one of these patients, this mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to oseltamivir,' it added, referring to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, under the brand name Tamiflu.

The case was the first drug-resistant strain found in France among the 1,200 strains experts have analysed here, the InVS said, adding that 'the effectiveness of vaccines currently available is not being questioned.'

The two patients were not related and had been hospitalised in two different cities in France, it said.

The WHO said on Friday the death toll had reached at least 7,826 worldwide since the A(H1N1) flu virus was first uncovered in April. The number of deaths reported to the UN health agency showed the biggest rise in the Americas, where 5,360 deaths have now been recorded compared to 4,806 a week ago.

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