17 February 2004	Tuesday	25 Zilhaj 1424

NEW DELHI, Feb 16: Health officials from Saarc countries on Monday claimed the entire region to be free of bird flu and demanded a blanket ban on the import of poultry products, at an emergency meeting here.

"Poultry and poultry products of this region are safe for human consumption," the officials from the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation said in a statement after the meeting.

The meeting unanimously called for a "temporary ban" on poultry products, including vaccines. Pakistani representative, Dr Baz Mohammad Junejo, the director-general of livestock and fisheries department, declared that no case of the bird flu had been noted in the country since December.

WHO'S CONCERNS: Speaking after the meeting, a WHO official said the bird flu epidemic, which had killed 20 people across Asia and afflicted millions of chickens, was unlikely to be curtailed within the next month or so.

"Based on our experience in Vietnam and Thailand, we still have concerns that the outbreak is not going to be contained in the next one or two months," Kumara Rai of the WHO's southeast Asia office told reporters here. -AFP/Reuters