Malaysia declared itself free of bird flu yesterday, but another death prompted Vietnam to step up its fight against the virus that has killed 34 people across Asia and ravaged the region's poultry industry.

　　China said it would resume imports of almost all poultry from the United States, ending a ban that followed an outbreak in Delaware in early 2004.

　　Vietnam's health ministry urged consumers to exercise caution in buying chicken after tests yesterday showed that bird flu killed a 6-year-old boy on December 30, taking the number of Vietnamese deaths from the virus to 22.

　　While Vietnam cracks down on illegal poultry smuggling, Malaysia is turning its attention to regaining market share in countries that banned its chickens last year, costing its poultry industry millions of ringgit in losses.

　　"Malaysia is free of bird flu, but we are continuing surveillance as the threat is still there," said Hawari Hussein, director general of the government's veterinary services department.

　　He said Malaysia had avoided any new cases of the potentially deadly H5N1 avian flu virus since November 22. No human cases have been reported in the country, and the virus was contained within the northern state of Kelantan.

　　But in Vietnam, bird flu had spread to 11 provinces by Monday, the agriculture ministry said - nine of them in the Mekong Delta, where the epidemic broke out in late 2003 before spreading across the country to wipe out 17 percent of all poultry stock.

　　The World Health Organization warned Vietnam may face new bird flu cases this month as poultry is moved around the country ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations in February.

　　A 9-year-old boy died on Tuesday, the first bird flu death of 2005, and a 16-year-old girl is in critical condition in a Ho Chi Minh City hospital.

　　Vietnam has culled 28,700 poultry since the beginning of December, Bui Quang Anh, head of the agriculture ministry's animal health department, was quoted by the Vietnam Net e-newspaper (www.vnn.vn) as saying.

　　The government is also concerned that up to 10 tons of chickens and ducks are being smuggled into the country every day, prompting it to announce a new campaign to tighten border controls.

　　"Consumers should refrain from buying poultry without quarantine and without clear origin," a Vietnamese health ministry spokesman said.

　　On January 1, animal health officials started tightening inspection of all poultry shipments to Ho Chi Minh City, home to nearly 10 million people, and banned the transport of live poultry on passenger buses.

　　The health ministry said humans have no immune mechanism against H5N1, which is contagious and can quickly mutate and combine with another flu virus.