WASHINGTON, May 22: The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved on Wednesday a bioterrorism bill designed to thwart diabolical germ warfare attacks by what one bill sponsor called “the most evil person on Earth”.

Approved by a 425-1 vote, the bill would enhance U.S. public health defences against a potential bioterror assault by expanding the national stockpile of drugs and vaccines and bolstering local health officials’ ability to detect, treat and contain a bioterror attack that could be silent but deadly.

The Senate is expected to act either this week or soon after the Memorial Day break, and sending it to President George W. Bush for his signature.

Louisiana Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin said that when he and his colleagues were drafting the legislation they tried to imagine, “What would the most evil person try to do to us, with biological threats, with chemical threats, with agents of destruction.”

The bill blends legislation passed by the House and Senate after last fall’s anthrax letters killed five people. That mystery remains unsolved, although law enforcement agencies have focused on a domestic rather than foreign culprit.—Reuters