Britain is pressing for a European Union (EU) ban on imports of all live wild birds from around the world after discovering that a South American parrot died from bird flu while in British quarantine.

Britain is pressing for a European Union (EU) ban on imports of all live wild birds from around the world after discovering that a South American parrot died from bird flu while in British quarantine.

As scientists tried to determine whether the parrot died of the strain which also kills people, Animal Welfare Minister Ben Bradshaw said his government made a formal request to the European Commission for such a ban.

There was "considerable" EU support for such a ban, which could be imposed within the coming week, he added.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which Bradshaw oversees, said the government asked the commission to ban all "live wild birds" into Europe from anywhere in the world.

But imports of poultry, which are domesticated birds, would still be allowed, said a DEFRA spokesman.

The European Union until now has banned bird imports from countries which have cases of avian flu, such as Romania, Thailand or Turkey, according to DEFRA.

Experts from Britain's Medical Research Council were due meanwhile to leave on a 10-day trip to China, Vietnam and Hong Kong to look at the way the disease was being monitored there and how to improve cooperation.

Bradshaw said in a BBC radio interview that the British government had been considering such a ban "for some time before the death of the parrot. It just so happens that the formal request has been made now."

He said the European Commission would also have to consider whether a ban would boost the illegal trade in wild birds, although the authorities have also stepped up monitoring of smuggling recently because of fears of bird flu.

Meanwhile, public health experts quoted by the Sunday Telegraph said exotic birds smuggled into Britain would provide the "Trojan Horse" for the spread of bird flu.

The Sunday Times said it is estimated that 250,000 exotic birds a year, half of the annual total brought into Britain, are smuggled.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) both appealed for an EU ban on wild birds after an announcement that the parrot had died of bird flu.

Scientists were still trying to determine whether the parrot from Suriname in South America died of the H5N1 strain hitting southeast Asia, devastating poultry stocks and killing more than 60 people there.

Chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said the test results on the parrot would probably be made available soon.

David Bowles, head of external affairs at the RSPCA, who pushed for the ban on wild birds, said Britain did not have the power alone to impose such a ban and had to rely on action taken at the European level.

The case of the parrot shows "controls in the exporting countries are not working which means that the EU's rules have a fatal flaw in them to prevent disease     entering      the     EU,"

Bowles added.

He said under EU quarantine procedures, imported birds had to remain in quarantine for 30 days.

But despite this stringency, the European Union had no control over whether the exporting nations kept the birds in quarantine for the recommended 21 days before they made the trip.

The parrot arrived with a batch from Suriname on September 16 and had been held with birds from Taiwan, DEFRA officials said. The birds have been culled and officials say there is not threat to Britain's status as free of bird flu.

Reynolds added that DEFRA was probing why birds from South America, a region of the world where bird flu has not been officially recorded, were with those from a region where it has caused devastation and panic.

But she said it was not clear yet whether the virus had originated with the birds from Taiwan.