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11 Oct 2005 09:12:12 GMT

France calls for EU minister meeting on bird flu

PARIS, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The European Union's health and foreign ministers should meet soon to coordinate their reaction to the spreading bird flu virus, France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Tuesday.

Douste-Blazy's call for a meeting came after the European Commission banned all imports of live birds and feathers from Turkey into the 25-nation EU on Monday after Ankara confirmed an outbreak of the highly contagious avian influenza.

"We can see that the H5N1 virus, this bird flu virus, is spreading and is arriving at our doors," Douste-Blazy told France 2 television.

Turkey and Romania reported new cases of the virus on Saturday and began culling thousands of birds to prevent the globally feared disease from spreading.

Experts there are yet to discover whether the cases are from the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, which has killed millions of birds and 65 people in Asia since 2003. Officials have played down the likelihood.

"We must take a certain number of measures, particularly towards countries which are affected by this bird flu at the moment," Douste-Blazy said.

"There must be a meeting by the European Union's health ministers and foreign ministers soon, so as to be able to harmonise our reaction," said Douste-Blazy, a doctor, who was France's health minister before taking on his current job.

European Commission health and consumer protection spokesman Philip Tod said EU health ministers were meeting informally on Oct. 20-21.

"The flu pandemic preparedness plan is one of the items on the agenda," he said.

Experts fear the virus could mutate in the future into one that spreads easily between humans, creating a pandemic with the potential to kill millions of people worldwide.

The European Commission has said it was taking no steps at the moment over a suspected outbreak of bird flu in Romania.

EU veterinary officers from the 25-nation bloc will meet in Brussels on Wednesday when the results of bird flu tests in Romania and Turkey should be known. They can decide further trade restrictions and tougher EU action.

Bulgarian authorities said on Tuesday they were testing three birds found dead in the northern part of the country for avian flu but said so far there were no indications the deadly virus had reached the country.

(Additional reporting by Aine Gallagher in Brussels)

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