United Nations agencies began an urgent three-day meeting in Rome on Tuesday to deal with the deadly bird flu sweeping Asia, which has claimed over ten lives in Vietnam and Thailand.

Experts from three UN bodies -- the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organization for Animal Health -- hope to workout strategies to help affected countries tackle the epidemic and prevent future outbreaks during their meeting at the FAO's headquarters.

An FAO official said at the meeting that 1.6 million US dollars would be granted to four Asian countries, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam, to help them prevent the extension of the deadly virus and improve the monitoring and inspecting systems.

"This meeting has been called for one objective: to define or re-define the control strategies which could be applied in the field now considering the extension of the disease," said Joseph Domenech, head of the FAO's animal health department, hosting the meeting.

"We hope to achieve a consensus between experts and development agencies ... on one or two options of control, not only killing all the animals, not only stamping out strategies, but including vaccination (of animals) strategies," said Domenech.

Until now, nine countries across Asia have reported cases of bird flu, but infections in humans have been reported only in Vietnam and Thailand. Most of the infections have been traced to direct contact with sick birds.

"We do not have evidence of human-to-human spread as of yet," said Juan Lubroth, an animal health expert with the FAO. However, experts expressed concerns over the possibility of the virus mutating into a form that passes easily between people.

"Today we are not at this stage," Domenach said. But the animal outbreaks were multiplying and on an increasing curve, so if this continued the risks became more and more serious, he warned

Italian scientists attending the meeting said Italy successfully eradicated bird flu virus in 2000 and 2002, and the vaccination used might be one of the vaccinations Asian countries could use to combat the disease.

The first day of the closed-door meeting drew animal and human health experts from around the world, including animal health specialists from the FAO, high-level veterinary officials from stricken countries and representatives of the United States Centerfor Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts are expected to hold a video conference on Wednesday with their counterparts in Asia who were not attending the meeting. The results of their discussions are scheduled to be announced at a news conference on Thursday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 4, 2004)