RIYADH, Feb 9: Saudi Arabia, Russia and Poland have suspended poultry imports from the US state of Delaware after chickens there were found infected with bird flu.

The Saudi government said in a statement it had also slapped a total ban on imports of chicken from Asia following the deadly outbreak of bird flu, as well as suspending beef imports from Washington state after the first confirmed case of mad cow disease there in December.

Saudi Arabia said last month it had banned the import of birds and poultry meat and products from some of the 10 Asian nations affected by the virus. The latest ban was imposed on Saturday.

In Moscow, the government's veterinary service said it had decided to suspend imports of poultry from Delaware. Officials said they could not rule out the ban being extended to other US states if the disease spread.

Moscow and Washington waged a bitter war over poultry imports in 2002 when Russia said it was considerably reducing its imports of US meat and slammed restrictions on poultry imports on health security grounds.

Russia is the leading market for US poultry exporters. In Warsaw, an official said Poland had banned imports of poultry from the United States. He said imports of all kinds of fowl, their meat and eggs would be banned indefinitely.

About 12,000 chickens were destroyed in the United States on Saturday, after a strain of avian flu was detected in chickens at a Delaware farm. US authorities have stressed that the bird flu strain found in the state is not the same as the one causing the Asian outbreak. Japan too suspended all imports of US poultry last week.

VIETNAMESE DIES: Bird flu claimed another life in Vietnam on Monday, as the World Health Organization said China faced a "formidable" task in bringing under control the disease that has killed 19 people in Asia.

The warning came amid growing concern that an abnormal number of poultry deaths in Cambodia suggested the kingdom's outbreak of avian influenza was far more widespread than the authorities have acknowledged.

China has categorically denied it has covered up the extent of its bird flu outbreak, but Henk Bekedam, the WHO's representative to the country, said the authorities might not have a complete picture of the epidemic.

Beijing has also insisted that there are no human infections, but Bekedam said this could not be ruled out given the scale of the outbreaks. "WHO feels it is conceivable that there may be human cases, given the extent of the outbreaks in poultry," he said.

His comments came as state media reported four new suspected bird flu outbreaks, taking China's outbreak tally to 19 confirmed and 19 suspected cases in 14 of the country's 31 provincial-level regions.

"We believe the Chinese government is fully aware of the formidable challenge it faces, and is deeply committed to reversing the situation," Bekedam said. -AFP