BANGKOK, Jan 28: Representatives of 13 countries agreed to coordinate their efforts to contain the outbreak of avian flu in Asia as they met in Bangkok on Wednesday in response to the rapid spread of the deadly disease.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai summed up the results of the closed-door meeting as "substantial, constructive and fruitful". Mr Surakiart said ministers and senior officials agreed to share their scientific knowhow in producing low-cost test kits to detect the disease and new anti-viral medicines to fight it.

He said delegates had reached "general agreement" that mass culling of poultry was the most effective way of containing the outbreak. But delegates also agreed that travel advisories related to the outbreak were unnecessary.

He said participants agreed to work toward "greater transparency, promptness and coordination" in their joint efforts to fight bird flu. Thai government spokesman Jakrapob Phenkair denied charges that Thai authorities engaged in a cover-up of the severity of the disease, but he admitted some officials were guilty of "inefficiency" in the early stages of the epidemic.

He quoted the prime minister as telling delegates at the meeting that the government "took prompt action as soon as bird flu was identified". The meeting's host, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, compared the bird flu epidemic to last year's SARS outbreak, calling them both examples of "the dark side of globalization".

"Fortunately the SARS crisis was a wake-up call to our public health system and since then we have put in place an effective system for surveillance, care and treatment that can easily be adopted to deal with any infections disease outbreak. The lessons of SARS must not be forgotten," Mr Thaksin said in a speech kicking off the meeting at the Thai foreign ministry.

He called for a united fight against the outbreak by the 13 economies represented, including poultry exporters and importers, along with the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health.

"We need to coordinate our efforts and exchange views and information, so that we can avoid the extremes of overreaction and complacency. What we need most are facts and transparency, not speculation and overstatement," Mr Thaksin said.

He raised the spectre of a "catastrophic scenario" if the disease mutates into a human-to-human transmitted disease. "The enemy we face is no less deadly than SARS," he said. "According to the WHO, these viruses could constantly undergo spontaneous genetic changes that make them hard to protect against. What is more, they could even mix their genes with other types to create new, deadlier subtypes."

"Through coordination and information exchange at this meeting, we must fight back before getting stuck with a more deadly blow," Mr Thaksin added. "Quick, decisive action to contain avian flu is therefore of the utmost importance if we are to avert a global pandemic that affects not only birds but also humans".

Representatives from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the European Union attended the meeting.

A total of 10.7 million chickens have been killed during the Thai government's effort to contain bird flu. Earlier in the day, Thai Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said bird flu had been detected in the Bangkok districts of Chatuchak and Buengkum.

Chatuchak is the site of the country's biggest open-air market, where officials said they found the disease in fighting cocks for sale there. Mr Somsak said all the poultry within a five-kilometre radius of the infected areas would be killed and the movement of poultry banned within 50 kilometres.

Bangkok was one of 12 provinces added to the list of infected areas that now includes 25 of Thailand's 76 provinces. The current outbreak of bird flu was first identified in Vietnam, where at least six people have died of the disease.

Thailand has confirmed the death of two young boys from bird flu, but medical authorities suspect that at least five more people who have died since last month may have been victims of the disease.

THAILAND'S ADMISSION: Thailand "screwed up" in its handling of the bird flu outbreak and those responsible will be punished, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The most appropriate word is a 'screw up'. Some agencies screwed up in Thailand," spokesman Jakrapob Penkair told reporters. "But right now, before punishing people, chickens have to be contained first. Lives have to be saved first before people are going to be punished."

In the face of allegations that the government was aware of the presence of the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza as early as last November, Jakropob denied there had been a cover-up.

"Thailand has now been accused of covering up the outbreak of bird flu. The prime minister denied this," he said. "It was a misinterpretation of the procedures. "He made a distinction between a cover up... and inefficiency," he said.-AFP