JAKARTA, October 31 (RIA Novosti, Mikhail Tsyganov) - Senior officials from 21 countries within the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization will hold meetings in Australia from October 31 to November 1 to discuss measures to curb the bird flu pandemic. The meetings will be attended by epidemic, health care, and quarantine experts from the Asia Pacific Rim, as well as observers from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, non-member countries, members of the World Health Organization, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Red Cross, the World Bank, and South Pacific states.
An Australian Foreign Ministry official said the meetings would not focus on the scientific aspects of bird flu and pandemic influenza, but on the APEC economies' joint response to the problem and measures to prevent human cases of bird flu.
The meetings' findings will be presented at the APEC summit, due in South Korea in mid November.
APEC is the world's largest international trade and economic organization, with its member countries' overall population exceeding 2.5 billion people and GDP $19 trillion. Major regional nations include Russia, Australia, Canada, China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, as well as many others.
