The 10 Asian countries hit by the rapid spread of bird flu that has killed at least eight people promised today to fight it together.
Details of what they agreed were sparse as their task loomed even larger now the lethal virus has struck in China, the world's most populous country, the birthplace of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and home to a vast poultry industry.
But the World Health Organisation said the one-day meeting in Bangkok, also attended by European Union and US officials, was a good start.
"This meeting is the beginning of the process. Quite clearly they're going to start to work together now," said WHO spokesman Mr Peter Cordingley, who described some delegates as clearly shaken by the rapid onslaught of the H5N1 avian flu virus.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao reflected the urgency displayed by the WHO which, with two other international organisations, has called for money and expertise to launch an all-out war on the bird flu virus.
"Any epidemic must be eradicated as soon as it occurs to prevent it from spreading," the Chinese leaders were quoted by state television as saying. "Such an epidemic must be contained in one spot and cut off to prevent it from infecting humans."
China is slaughtering poultry around three farms in three regions where bird flu was confirmed yesterday, the latest of the quick fire eruptions across Asia from Pakistan to Japan which the WHO says has no historical precedent.
The great fear is that the H5N1 avian flu virus might mate with human influenza and unleash a pandemic among people with no immunity to it.
So far, there is no evidence of transmission between people. Infected humans are believed to have caught the virus directly from birds. But experts say no matter how remote the possibility, every outbreak shortens the odds a little.
A Hong Kong scientist added to the fears by saying the unusually large number of ducks dying from bird flu in southern China indicated the bug has become more virulent, which would put more people at risk of contracting it.
The fresh outbreak in China was what experts dreaded most with its vast southern population living cheek by jowl with farm animals.