"We have no time to lose and money has to be made available so implementation of preparedness plans can start as soon as possible. Otherwise it may be too late," Narain said.

A funding request would be finalised in two weeks for submission to the January 17-18 donors' meeting organised by the World Bank and the China's Health Ministry in Beijing, he said.

The $31 million would only last six months to a year and more would be needed to help poor countries boost surveillance and improve laboratories to monitor avian influenza.

Epidemiologists and lab experts from 11 Asian nations -- including hard-hit Indonesia and Thailand as well as India and North Korea -- held a 4-day meeting in Bangkok to review their pandemic plans.

The WHO is urging member nations to develop a "multi-sectoral" response to the H5N1 virus, which has killed 67 people in Asia, including 42 people in Vietnam, since late 2003.

The virus cannot move easily between people, but experts fear it could mutate into a strain that could set off a pandemic causing millions of deaths worldwide.

Narain said Thailand and Indonesia had fairly comprehensive pandemic strategies, while the other nine countries were in the "final stage" of drafting their plans.

"All the 11 countries are extremely concerned and they are committed to do something. Every country considers themselves at risk," said Narain.

"No country is absolutely prepared. No country can be 100 percent prepared to deal with a pandemic if the pandemic was to occur tomorrow or next week," he said.

The 11 nations attending the Bangkok meeting were Bangladesh, Bhutan, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The meeting was coordinated by the WHO's Southeast Asia regional office, which based in India and covers these 11 countries. China and Vietnam, where there have been human deaths and numerous outbreaks in poultry, are covered from another office.

Myanmar has not recorded any cases of bird flu, but the military government is worried about the limited supply of anti-viral drugs, such as Tamiflu, and is exploring alternative medicines.

"We are very much worried about anti-virals and some vaccines also. We don't have (them)," said Dr. Ye Myint, deputy director general of Myanmar's Disease Control Department.

Myint said Myanmar had placed an order for 10,000 doses of Tamiflu with drug-maker Roche, but he worried it would take too long to build up a stockpile for the country of 52 million people.

"We have explored the idea with traditional medicine practitioners...they might have some good medicine. We have to think and research on that," he said of alternatives to expensive imported drugs.