  We study the magneto-rotational instability of an incompressible flow which
rotates with angular velocity Omega(r)=a+b/r^2 where r is the radius and $a$
and b are constants. We find that an applied magnetic field destabilises the
flow, in agreement with the results of Rudiger & Zhang 2001. We extend the
investigation in the region of parameter space which is Rayleigh stable. We
also study the instability at values of magnetic Prandtl number which are much
larger and smaller than Rudiger & Zhang. Large magnetic Prandtl numbers are
motivated by their possible relevance in the central region of galaxies
(Kulsrud & Anderson 1992). In this regime we find that increasing the magnetic
Prandtl number greatly enhances the instability; the stability boundary drops
below the Rayleigh line and tends toward the solid body rotation line. Very
small magnetic Prandtl numbers are motivated by the current MHD dynamo
experiments performed using liquid sodium and gallium. Our finding in this
regime confirms Rudiger & Zhang's conjecture that the linear magneto-rotational
instability and the nonlinear hydrodynamical instability (Richard & Zahn 1999)
take place at Reynolds numbers of the same order of magnitude.
