EU member states pushed for the ban via their experts in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health despite doubts as to the necessity of the move from the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the EU.

Meanwhile, the EU sent an animal health expert to Vietnam to help in combating that country's Avian Influenza epidemic. He will work with Vietnamese authorities as part of an international team lead by the World Health Organization.

Under the new ban, birds such as parrots, finches, budgerigars and hawks will no longer be accepted from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea, Thailand or Vietnam.

The EC argued that that the EU already has strict rules in place that keep birds under quarantine for 30 days, while Avian Influenza has an incubation period of just a few days. EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne described it as a purely "precautionary measure."

Around 100,000 birds were imported from the area in 2003, mainly from Pakistan, China and Indonesia.

(People's Daily January 31, 2004)