Member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) failed to reach consensus Saturday on the destruction of the world's last known stockpiles of smallpox virus.

The annual assembly of the 192-member WHO was unable to set a date for the destruction of the last stocks of the deadly virus, which are held in high-security laboratories in the U.S. and Russia, delegates to the assembly said.

Instead, the assembly decided to defer the smallpox destruction issue to the WHO's Executive Board meeting in January 2007.

The highly contagious smallpox virus was a very dangerous killer before the 1960s. It was officially eradicated in 1979 after a worldwide vaccination campaign.

The U.S. and Russia have since stored the remaining virus samples for research purposes and resisted repeated calls to destroy them, which are seen as a potential threat.

Besides the smallpox issue, the WHO's 59th annual assembly, which concluded on Saturday, discussed a series of other important public health issues, including strengthening the preparedness and response to a potential pandemic of human influenza.

Member countries adopted a resolution to voluntarily implement parts of the International Health Regulations immediately, in particular those directly related to avian influenza and a potential human pandemic.

The six-day assembly also passed resolutions on polio eradication, HIV/AIDS, infant nutrition, etc.

Source: Xinhua