"We call on the World Health Organization to send experts to confirm that Kurdistan is free of bird flu," said Imad Ahmed, deputy prime minister of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq.

Ahmed said 12 people had been quarantined after they fell ill with pneumonia, but could possibly be infected with the fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu which has killed 80 people worldwide since 2003.

Iraq's Kurdish provinces, which lie on the border with Turkey, are a major poultry producing region supplying chicken and eggs for much of the entire country.

Two people died in Kurdistan with flu-like symptoms earlier this month.

The first, a teenage girl, was proved not to have H5N1 when samples were sent to the WHO laboratory in Amman. Samples from the second case, the girl's uncle who died after suffering a pulmonary infection, are still being tested in Amman.

Another suspected case is 54-year-old Mariam Qadar, who hails from the same region as the two fatalities and was taken to hospital in Sulaimaniyah by her family on Wednesday.

"The analysis so far has not confirmed if she has the disease, but there is a suspicion," hospital director Shirku Abdallah told AFP.

Health Minister Abdel Mutalib Mohammed Ali headed to Kurdistan on Monday amid growing concern over the possibility of the lethal form of avian flu spilling across the border from nearby infected Turkey.

"We are calling on Iraqis not to panic or listen to rumors, but at the same to inform us if they suspect anything," he said on Iraqi television.

"Since the first cases were reported up in Turkey we have been taking all the necessary measures to deal with any possible influenza," he said.

But he warned Iraqis "not to approach domestic birds and poultry as this is the main way of spreading the disease".

The government of Sulaimaniyah, run by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has decided to slaughter all poultry and birds in an area near the Turkish and Iranian borders following the recommendation of a fact-finding mission.

The area, which consists of some 50 settlements, is not a major poultry producing region, and residents will be offered compensation.

"Poultry should only be slaughtered under the supervision of the agriculture department since individual measures can only contribute to the spread of the disease," said a government statement, promising firm measures in the case of non-compliance.

"The virus of the bird flu exists in Kurdistan and we are warning the population, particularly in the four regions bordering Turkey and we are asking them to cooperate with teams from the ministry of agriculture, health and interior in slaughtering poultry," it added.

The statement did not specify if it was referring to the H5N1 strain.

Turkey, which has 21 cases of the flu, is the only country outside Asia that has reported fatalities from the virus. Four people have died there.

Health officials in Iraq's three Kurdish provinces say a number of measures are being taken to stop the spread of the virus. These include decontaminating trucks crossing the border, banning the import of Turkish poultry and prohibiting the sale of live chickens inside Kurdistan.

There is also a major public awareness campaign urging people to take precautions, including cooking instructions to minimize the risk of infection.

Scientists fear that the more the virus spreads, the greater the chance H5N1 will mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans. This could spark a global pandemic that could claim millions of lives.