EU urges coordinated global response to bird flu ATTENTION - ADDS Straw quotes, background /// LUXEMBOURG, Oct 18 (AFP) - EU foreign ministers called on Tuesday for international coordination in the face of the "global threat" of bird flu, which has spread to the European Union's doorstep. "Avian and pandemic influenza are global threats (which need) an international coordinated response," the ministers said in a statement after their talks, focused on crunch world trade negotiations and bird flu. Outbreaks of the potentially deadly disease, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia, have been found in birds in Romania and Turkey, and Greek authorities are awaiting tests on a suspected case there. Scientists fear that the virus H5N1 may mutate, acquiring genes from the human flu virus that would make it highly infectious as well as deadly -- possibly killing millions worldwide as in the influenza pandemic of 1918. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country currently holds the EU's presidency, said the bloc was dealing effectively with the disease as it evolves. "It was clear from briefings... that the European Union is responding swiftly and efficiently to cases and suspected cases of the virus H5N1," he told reporters after the meeting ended. Straw too placed emphasis on the EU's role in coordinating a response and announced that Britain was drawing up an action plan to submit to health experts. "This will bring together EU action to prevent and control the spread of avian flu as well as measures to improve human influenza preparedness," he said. Earlier, EU health and consumer protection commissioner Markos Kyprianou said that the bird flu outbreaks on Europe's southeastern flank do not increase the threat of a full-blown human flu pandemic on the continent. Speaking after briefing the ministers in Luxembourg, he underlined that bird flu and human flu pose different threats. "I want to distinguish between animal health and the possible threat of a pandemic. These are two separate issues," he told reporters. "The fact that we have avian flu in Europe now does not affect the threat of a human pandemic ... it could come from this virus, it could come from a mutation of any other influenza virus," Kyprianou added. aud-loc/mt/ec Health-flu-EU-coordination AFP 181315 GMT OCT 05
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