World Health Organisation officials say they are trying to determine why the bird flu outbreak in Turkey has spread so quickly among humans, especially children.

Bird flu in humans appears to be spreading in Turkey, with three people in Ankara testing positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in preliminary tests, representing the first suspected cases outside the eastern city of Van.

OFFICIALS have confirmed three cases of the deadly strain of bird flu in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Turkish and European health officials prepare to tour an eastern region today hit by bird flu after a British laboratory confirmed that two siblings who died this week from the virus were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.

Three domestic ducks have died of bird flu in eastern Romania, but authorities said they had not confirmed whether the birds were infected by the H5N1 strain that experts are tracking in the fear that it could mutate and spawn a human flu pandemic.

FEARS mounted last night that a deadly strain of bird flu has arrived in Europe, following news that authorities are examining the deaths of domestic ducks in Romania.

All samples of the killer influenza virus sent outside the US have been destroyed except one in Lebanon, and that has been located, the UN health agency said today.

TWO Vietnamese sisters who died of bird flu may have caught the disease from their brother, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

Indonesia warned today that it could lose a million jobs because of an outbreak of bird flu.

ASIAN countries that have so far escaped the bird flu spreading across the continent stepped up measures yesterday to keep the virus outside their borders.