COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Bird flu edged closer to Europe's heartland Wednesday with tests confirming the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus had reached Croatia. Health officials said the vast majority of European countries were prepared to fight a possible human flu pandemic, and downplayed the risk of people contracting the disease through food.

The H5N1 strain, which has killed at least 62 people in Asia, had previously been identified in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a type that can be spread easily to and between humans. Outbreaks in birds in Europe are being stamped out rapidly to prevent opportunities for the virus to mutate.

"The chances of the bird flu strain mutating into a human pandemic virus are much higher in Asia, where it is more widespread than in Europe, which only has small pockets of the virus," said Marc Danzon, head of the World Health Organization's European regional office.

The Chinese government announced    Wednesday   that   a

bird flu outbreak has killed 545 chickens and ducks in a village in central China - the country's third outbreak of the disease in two weeks.

In Croatia, authorities said British experts had confirmed dead swans found in the Balkan country were infected with the H5N1 strain.

"We have already taken measures to contain the disease," Agriculture Ministry spokesman Mladen Pavic said.

The European Union had already issued a precautionary ban on imports of live poultry, wild birds and feathers from Croatia. It also said it would ban exotic bird imports and impose stricter rules on the private ownership of parrots and other pet birds.

Two parrots imported from Suriname died in quarantine over the weekend in Britain. Authorities said they believed at least one of them had H5N1, after a test on a combined sample from the two birds came out positive for the strain.

The birds were being held in quarantine along with a shipment of birds from Taiwan, and Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said the virus most likely came from there.

Meanwhile, preliminary tests conducted on three people who returned to the Indian Ocean French island of La Reunion after a trip to Thailand indicated they may have the H5N1 strain, authorities said Wednesday.

The three people had visited a bird park in Thailand and come into close contacts with birds, French Health Ministry spokeswoman Helene Monard said.

WHO and EU health officials meeting in Copenhagen said all EU countries had plans to fight a possible human flu pandemic, but three countries that are part of the WHO's European region - Turkmenistan, Moldova and Macedonia - had not drafted any strategies, Danzon said.

San Marino, Monaco and Russia, which has reported cases of birds with H5N1, have not responded to the agency, he said.

"Addressing this must be a priority," Danzon told reporters at the end of the meeting. "We will push those who have not responded yet, and we will support the three others to make plans."

German authorities said preliminary tests on wild geese found dead there had come back positive for bird flu - though     they     had   died  of

poisoning - and further tests were being carried out to see if they carried H5N1.

Slovenia, Hungary and France were also testing birds found dead for signs of bird flu, underscoring the sensitivity of the issue even though officials have urged Europeans not to panic.

EU authorities downplayed the risk of people contracting the disease through food, but the bloc's food agency said poultry and eggs should be thoroughly cooked to eliminate the possibility.

"Whilst it is unlikely that H5N1 could be passed on to humans by raw meat or eggs, cooking food properly would inactivate the virus and eliminate this potential risk," the European Food Safety Authority, based in Parma, Italy, said in a statement.

The virus is hard for humans to contract, and most of the 62 people in Asia who have died from the disease since 2003 were poultry farmers directly infected by sick birds.