The World Health Organisation (WHO) kept its pandemic flu alert at phase 5 on a six-level scale on Friday and repeated a call for countries not to restrict travel because of the H1N1 influenza outbreak.

After a meeting of its emergency committee, theUN agency said it had agreed in future to take into account the severity of a flu outbreak and not just its geographical spread when announcing alert changes.

Phase 6 means a full pandemic is in progress and phase 5, the current level, means one is imminent. – Reuters