The Asia-Pacific region, Africa and the the Middle East are put on alert against bird flu outbreaks after the deadly disease was confirmed recently in European countries, causing fears about its further spread and even a possible pandemic.

In the Australian city of Brisbane, the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum held a meeting on Monday to seek ways of fending off the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus.

APEC health officials were meeting for the first time to formulate a plan to contain the outbreaks and, in worst cases, human to human transmission and extensive spread among humans, according to Australian officials.

Scientists fear that the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia, could mutate into a variety that could spread easily through human-to-human contact.

Information sharing and regional stockpiling of vaccines against the deadly virus topped the agenda of the meeting.

The meeting was held in preparation for an APEC summit slated for mid-November in Busan, South Korea, where leaders are expected to continue discussions on ways to fight avian influenza.

Meanwhile, more than 80 African government ministers and veterinary experts are scheduled to meet in the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Monday. They will discuss the measures to prevent the landfall of the H5N1 strain on the African continent.

Migratory birds are regarded as a natural reservoir of avian influenza viruses. Since the outbreak of bird flu in Europe, exerts have warned that migratory birds might move to warmer areas in north Africa, including the Nile delta, for winter.

The week-long meeting is "obviously going to discuss bird flu," said Innocent Nyaruhirira, Rwanda's minister in charge of infectious diseases.

The meeting comes after the World Health Organization warned Friday that the continent's weak surveillance and healthcare systems would hamper critical early warning of the presence of the H5N1 strain.

The fear is shared in the Middle East region, where two conferences have been held respectively in Egypt and Cyprus to discuss ways of fighting the virulent virus.

Palestinian Minister of Public Health Zuhni Al-Waheidi, who attended both conferences, said Sunday that the cabinet has allocated more than 3 million US dollars to deal with the disease, which has not yet been found in the Palestinian territories.

In Iraq, Agriculture Minister Ali al-Bahadli said Sunday that state veterinary officials have set up a joint operation team to monitor the situation.

On Saturday, an official from Iraq's northern Kurdistan region reported that two cases of a milder strain of avian flu had been found, but experts had ruled out the H5N1 strain in both cases.

There has been a global scare of bird flu spreading from Asia to Europe and then to other areas since the air-borne H5N1 virus was confirmed in Russia, Turkey, Romania and Greece.

In the latest cases, Britain and Croatia said a week ago that they had discovered bird flu virus in a dead parrot and swans respectively, indicating that the epidemic was further spreading throughout Europe.

British researchers said the parrot, which carried H5N1 bird flu and died on Oct. 16, was imported from Suriname in South America.

Source: Xinhua