to forge a coordinated international front against bird flu and to advance global preparations for a possible flu pandemic.

Ministers from China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and the United States

are expected as are representatives from the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health.

Croatian authorities continued Sunday to kill thousands of domestic birds in a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius around a lake near the eastern village of Zdenci where earlier six dead swans were found to have been infected by the virus.

Another five swans were found dead at a pond, also in eastern Croatia, and were sent to Zagreb for analysis. The result of the tests will be known on Monday or Tuesday.

Germany has begun enforcing a temporary ban on outdoor poultry rearing, confining fowl to sheds with spot checks on farms and fines of up to the equivalent of 30,000 dollars (25,000 euros) for violations.

The neighboring governments of Austria, the principality of Liechtenstein and Switzerland have banned rearing free range poultry for the next few months.

Slovakia on Sunday issued a ban on live poultry and birds at markets and expositions.

The French agency for food safety recommended increased scrutiny of wildlife, but stopped short of proposing poultry be confined.

In the Middle East, Israel and its Arab neighbor Jordan stepped up efforts to coordinate their response on Sunday with a meeting of health officials, an Israeli embassy spokesman said.

Veterinary officers from the two countries met on Thursday and agreed to open a 24-hour hotline to exchange information on the advance of the disease.

In China, there was another outbreak of the virus on a farm in its northern Inner Mongolia region, where 2,600 birds died, with 91,000 others culled.

Officials in Beijing on Saturday began checking chickens, ducks, geese and even carrier pigeons being raised as pets in the city to make sure they were properly vaccinated or isolated, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issued a directive for an all-out effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

Experts from Britain's Medical Research Council were Sunday set 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.

The FAO has warned that migratory birds believed to be carriers may next take the virus to Africa, saying that the continent would be an "ideal breeding ground" because of close contact between people and animals.

Scientists fear Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are particularly threatened as they host millions of migratory fowl flying to warmer climes during the European winter.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Union's executive faced increasing pressure to ban all wild bird imports after a parrot that died while in British quarantine was confirmed to have infected with the deadly Asian strain of bird flu.

The European Union's executive faced increasing pressure to ban all wild bird imports after a parrot that died while in British quarantine was confirmed to have infected with the deadly Asian strain of bird flu.

The first confirmed case of H5N1 in the European Union, the parrot demonstrated that in addition to migratory birds the global trade in exotic birds risks spreading the virus that has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia over the past three years.

Britain, which reported Friday the parrot imported from South America had been infected with bird flu, announced Sunday that tests had shown it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Even before the tests were in the British government had appealed for the EU to put in place a blanket ban on the import of exotic birds, which the bloc's executive Commission said it would urgently consider.

"The commission is currently considering the issue, it will decide by Tuesday," said spokesman Stefaan de Rynck.

The European Union already has various bird import bans in place for Romania, Russia, Thailand and Turkey, countries which have had confirmed cases of the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain.

It is also preparing a similar ban for Croatia, where a new bird flu outbreak was announced on Friday with test results awaited for the H5N1 strain.

Russia, which has had several outbreaks of H5N1, reported at the weekend bird flu of an as yet undetermined type in a second area west of the Urals mountains.

Sweden said a case of bird flu among ducks was not the deadly strain.

British veterinary authorities said that as the parrot had been in quarantine since it arrived from Surinam it did not affect the country's status as free of bird flu.

The virus was closer to strains in Asia than those believed brought by migratory birds to Romania and Turkey.

"The closest match is a strain identified in ducks in China earlier this year. It is not so similar to the strains from Romania and Turkey. It is not a strain that the Veterinary Laboratory Agency has seen before," said Debby Reynolds, chief veterinary officer of Britain's department of environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA).

Britain's proposal for the EU ban on live wild bird imports was to be raised at an EU agricultural ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Monday and Tuesday.

The possible ban, which would not affect domesticated birds, will also be discussed by experts at a meeting of the EU food security committee on Tuesday in Brussels before a final decision is taken by the commission.

Health experts from more than 50 countries were set to gather in Copenhagen on Monday to assess the response to avian flu, amid concerns H5N1 could mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans, causing a global pandemic.

Also Monday, in Ottawa, health ministers and experts from 30 countries were scheduled to meet