It will take at least two years before the European Union is fully ready to deal with a flu pandemic, the union's disease control agency in Stockholm said today.

THE Irish public is among the most ignorant in Europe about bird flu, despite the fact that EU experts say a pandemic is inevitable.

European Union experts today said a global influenza pandemic that could kill millions remains inevitable, although the immediate threat to human health from bird flu in Europe remained low.

The spread of bird flu in Europe and Africa is likely to slow down over the summer months, but the threat of a global pandemic will not decrease, international health officials said at the start of a conference in Sweden today.

BUFFER zones with restricted movement for people and animals will be among the precautions taken in the event of an outbreak of avian flu in Ireland.

ACKNOWLEDGING it is on high alert, the European Union approved measures to try and halt the unrelenting advance of bird flu, including setting up buffer zones around outbreaks of the lethal virus.

The European Union’s disease control agency today downplayed fears of bird flu infecting humans in Europe.

European Union foreign ministers today declared the spread of bird flu from Asia into Europe a “global threat” requiring broad international co-operation.

European Union foreign ministers are holding emergency talks today on the widening bird flu scare, a day after tests in Greece indicated the virus had reached the EU for the first time.