WHO urges world leaders to fight SARS virus

GOVERNMENTS worldwide must do more to work together in the fight against SARS, the head of the UN health agency said yesterday, as delegates gathered for the WHO's annual meeting, wearing badges to show they have been screened for the virus.

"It has never been clearer than today that a secure, healthy future for us all depends on cooperation across borders and between institutions," World Health Organisation chief Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland told top health officials and medical specialists.

"We can no longer rely on national efforts alone to implement the scaled up system of global alert and response that the world now needs," she told the opening session of the World Health Assembly.