WHO may not raise flu pandemic alert

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation does not plan to raise its pandemic alert to the highest level if the current outbreak of a deadly new strain of flu continues as is, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.

Addressing an informal session of the U.N. General Assembly on the outbreak, Ban said World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan had told him "that if the situation remains as it is, WHO has no plan to raise the alert level to 6 at this moment."

Chan, addressing the conference by videolink from Geneva, said the number of confirmed cases of H1N1 influenza reported to the WHO had passed the 1,000 mark to stand at 1,003 from 20 countries.

But she said there was "no indication that we are facing a situation similar to that in 1918," when a flu pandemic killed tens of millions.

Six is the highest level on the WHO's scale for the spread of a pandemic. Chan said there was no indication how long the alert would remain at its current level of 5.

Ban said he planned to convene a meeting of donors and the private sector in Geneva in two weeks time to help ensure the world's countries had the resources to fight the pandemic.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Bill Trott)