Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for making this a remarkable and productive meeting. The world has been watching and listening as, over these three days, the scale of the challenges has emerged. The international solidarity to confront these threats is clear. The urgency of acting now is felt by us all. Precise recommendations for action have emerged. Equally, precise offers of help and support have been put forward, by both developing and industrialized countries.

I will now review the central points that have come out of the meeting. Next I will outline an integrated programme of action which responds to the issues raised.

• Support the development of integrated national plans for avian influenza control and human pandemic influenza preparedness and response.
• Assist countries in aggressive control of avian influenza in birds, and deepen the understanding of the role of wild birds in virus transmission.
• Nominate "rapid response" teams of experts to support epidemiological field investigations.
• Strengthen country and regional capacity in surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, and alert and response systems.
• Expand the network of influenza laboratories, with regional collaborative systems for access to reference laboratories.
• Establish and integrate multi-country networks for the control or prevention of animal trans-boundary diseases, and regional support units as established in the Global Framework for the Progressive Control of Trans-boundary Animal Diseases.
• Expand the global antiviral stockpile, and prepare standard operating practices for its rapid deployment to achieve early containment.
• Assess the needs and strengthen veterinary infrastructure in line with OIE standards.
• Map out a global strategy and work plan for coordinating antiviral and influenza vaccine research and development, and for increasing production capacity and equitable access.
• Put forward proposals to the WHO Executive Board at its 117th meeting for immediate voluntary compliance with relevant articles of the International Health Regulations 2005.
• Finalize detailed costing of country plans and the regional and global requirements to support them, in preparation for the January pledging meeting to be hosted by the Government of China.
• Finalize a coordination framework building on existing mechanisms at the country level, and at the global level, building on international best practices.

This is a challenging agenda which will require all our best efforts.

Thank you.