"The meeting will deliberate on possible cooperation for tackling the problem of bird flu which has emerged in Asian countries, in the light of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) assessment that it could have a more devastating impact than Sars," it said.

The ministry said in a statement that relevant officials from the seven members of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) are scheduled to attend the one-day emergency meeting in New Delhi on Monday.

Saarc groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

"The meeting demonstrates the resolve of the Saarc countries to counter this health hazard under the multilateral forum," the statement said.

New Delhi says heightened vigilance at its borders has so far prevented the H5N1 virus, which has emerged in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, from erupting within Indian territory.

Weaker strains of the flu have been reported in Pakistan, Taiwan and the United States.

The WHO has criticised Asian nations for putting economic concerns before public health by attempting to cover up outbreaks in a bid to protect their agricultural sectors and tourism industries.

Reuters from Bangkok adds: The United Nations issued a sharp warning yesterday to Asian countries not to relax in the war on a bird flu virus that has killed 19 people in the region because the epidemic was still spreading.

"The spread of the avian influenza virus in several Asian countries is still not under control," the Food and Agricultural Organisation said in a statement, and governments had "to remain vigilant as further outbreaks continue to occur."

Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Laos had reported new outbreaks of the H5N1 virus, it said, despite the slaughter of 80 million chickens -- most of them in worst-hit Vietnam and Thailand, which had each killed 30 million.

China has now confirmed cases in 14 provinces.

The FAO also stressed that poorer Asian countries had neither the resources nor the organisation to eradicate the fast spreading H5N1 virus, reflecting the fears of experts that it could flare up again easily.

The World Bank said yesterday it will lend Hanoi $10 million to compensate farmers in Vietnam, where about 30 million of an estimated 250 million poultry have been killed by the virus or culled.

The alarm was sounded as Vietnam and Thailand assured their people the epidemic was coming under control and the United States hastened to stress its bird flu outbreaks were of a milder strain which cannot, like the H5N1, leap the species barrier.

"The single take-home message is that the form of avian influenza in New Jersey is not a human health threat," said Health Commissioner Clifton Lacy as his state became the third in the United States to report an outbreak.

Officials said the H7 bird flu virus, which poses no danger to people, had also spread to Pennsylvania and more cases may be found in Delaware, where the first US outbreak occurred.

A dozen countries have banned all or some poultry imports from the United States, where the government estimates each person will eat 82.5 pounds (37.4 kg) of chicken this year.

But Thailand, the world's fourth biggest chicken exporter where at least five people have died of bird flu, was already looking beyond the epidemic and seeking to shorten bans crimping its $1 billion a year chicken export industry.