OTTAWA (Reuters) - The global fight against a flu pandemic could be badly undermined if governments fail to prevent mass panic in the event of widespread fatalities, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said on Tuesday. 

More than 60 people in Southeast Asia have died of bird flu and the deadly strain has spread to Europe. Experts say the world is overdue for a flu pandemic and predict the most likely cause will be an animal strain which mutates. 

"Among the most profound challenges we face is communication with our own citizens. Public fear, and bad information, could all too easily snowball into panic," Martin told an international conference on combating pandemics. 

"It would complicate our collective response to a pandemic immeasurably and magnify its potential impact," Martin said. "Our best antidote will be clear, honest and consistent assessment of the risks we face, the ability to swiftly gather information, and to speak with one voice in frank and constructive terms -- early and continuously." 

Thousands of Italian poultry farmers demonstrated in northeastern cities on Tuesday, demanding action against "irrational fear" over bird flu, which has cut national consumption of chicken by more than half. 

Martin said a pandemic would require unprecedented coordination and cooperation among countries. 

"Our planning and preparation for a pandemic will inarguably help to put us in a better position to respond to other emerging diseases, to natural disasters and to threats of bioterrorism we may face in the future," he said. 

Martin said the world should remember what happened during an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people following an outbreak in China in 2002 and exposed weaknesses in some nations' health systems. 

Among the countries more severely affected by SARS were Canada and Singapore. 

"If many of our countries have learned the lessons of SARS, that will tell us that each of us has more to do," Martin said. 

A vaccine against a future flu pandemic will not be available until scientists identify the exact strain. 

Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk said the best way to ensure sufficient vaccines in a pandemic was to transfer the necessary technology now to nations such as Mexico, India, China and Brazil. 

"(This) is an idea whose time has come because it's clear that with current capabilities, we would never even remotely

meet the needs of the entire world," he told Reuters and Reuters Television in a recent interview. 

Martin said Canada supported "a proposal to expand our projected vaccine supply" but gave no details. 

Two leading food health officials complained on Monday that the focus on a possible pandemic was diverting resources away from the campaign to curb the current outbreak in birds, in part by paying compensation to poor farmers.