Leaders of 16 countries attending the first East Asia Summit Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur pledged to join forces in fighting against bird flu.

A joint declaration signed by the leaders said they will make great efforts to "enhance national, regional and international capacities" to prevent bird flu from transforming into a human pandemic.

The leaders also decided to improve their "national policies for prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases in general, " the declaration said.

They agreed to work together to set up a network of stockpile of antiviral drugs with the technical support of the World Health organization and other regional and international bodies.

The leaders vowed to make every effort to control and eradicate bird flu in domestic poultry, and take effective measures to " ensure rapid, transparent and accurate risk communications" among the participating countries.

The first East Asia Summit was attended by the 10 member ASEAN ( Association of Southeast Asia Nations) and China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and India.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua