Croatia said on Wednesday tests by the EU reference laboratory for bird flu had confirmed the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus strain in six wild swans found dead at a pond in eastern Croatia last week, said reports reaching here from Zagreb.

"Results from the laboratory in Weybridge (of Britain) confirmed the H5N1 virus, which shows that our measures were justified," veterinary expert Vladimir Savic was quoted as saying.

Since late last week Croatian authorities have detected bird flu from two groups of wild swans found dead in the West Balkan republic's rural northeast.

Samples from the first find at Grudnjak fish pond in Zdenci municipality on Friday were sent to the British laboratory for testing. The second group of dead swans was discovered about 15 kilometers away at Nasice fish pond on Monday.

Croatian health authorities said the dead Nasice swans would not be sent to Britain for further examination because they believed the swans were from the same flock.

"I once again urge poultry producers to take this seriously and keep poultry indoors. The situation is serious for the whole of Europe until a strategy is found, so I cannot say for how long the poultry will have to be kept indoors," Savic said.

The deadly H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003, has been detected in Romania, Turkey, Russia and in an exotic wild bird imported and quarantined in Britain.

Croatian authorities culled 27,000 poultry around the two fishponds, where wild swans died of bird flu.

Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic said the government would pay some 800,000 kuna (130,000 US dollars) in compensation for the culled poultry starting from Thursday.

The European Commission this week banned exports of wild fowl, live poultry and certain poultry products from Croatia.