A Lithuanian official has cautioned that bird flu is posing an increasing threat to his country after its recent outbreak in Turkey.

The epidemic is likely to spread in Europe when migratory birds return to their habitats there from north and central Africa in April and May, Tuesday's Lietuvos Zinios newspaper quoted Kazimieras Lukauskas, director of Lithuania's State Food and Veterinary Service, as saying.

Once bird flu appears in Europe, it will definitely strike Lithuania and then will take only weeks to go rampant across the country, said the official.

The European Commission has been monitoring Lithuania and some other EU member states for a possible outbreak of bird flu.

Lithuania has banned the import of unprocessed poultry not onlyfrom the heavily-stricken South Asia, but from Turkey and Turkey's neighbors including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Turkey reported five more human cases of bird flu in four provinces on Monday, raising the number of people hit by the virusto 14.

Lithuania's State Food and Veterinary Service has reportedly worked out specific plans to cope with a possible bird flu attack.

Lukauskas has earlier said once bird flu is detected in his country, all poultry within a 10-km radius of the epidemic center will be culled, and the owners will be compensated.