European Commission (EC) spokesman Philip Tod said on Monday that the suspected cases of seagulls affected with H5N1 virus in Finland were only a "common" avian influenza, or bird flu.

    He said that the seagulls in Finland had been affected with low pathogenic strand of bird flu virus, which poses "little risk to poultry" and "no risk to human being."

    "It is not H5N1 avian influenza that has caused problems in Asia," he told a press conference held by the EC, the executive arm of the 25-nation European Union, referring to the strain of the bird flu virus that has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003.

    Tod also noted that the seagulls found dead are not "migratory wild sea birds".

    However, the spokesman added the EU should continue to tighten the surveillance on possible outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu.

    It has been proven that H5N1 can fatally infect humans. The virus has seriously impacted the poultry industry in Asia since 2003, killing tens of millions of birds and at least 60 people, most of them in Vietnam and Thailand.

    A man hospitalized in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan last month with suspected bird flu was found to have pneumonia. There is the fear that the fatal avian disease could spread to Europe when migrant birds migrate northward.