On Sunday, four Israeli Arabs were killed in northern Israel due to flooding. Sahar Mehamid, 23, from Umm al-Fahm was killed in Wadi Ara and three women from the lower Galilee village of Touran were killed in a car accident after driving through floodwater covering the road. PA resident Iyad Taha, from a village near Ramallah, also drowned in the floodwaters.

Tuesday's hail and tornado broke electric poles, overturned cars, uprooted trees, damaged crops and injured more than 75 people - most lightly. Most of those injured were struck by objects whipped up by the strong winds, including two children, who suffered deep lacerations. The villages lost electricity for many hours.

Farmers report that avocado, lychee and banana crops were severely damaged by the winds and hail.

Vadim Amar, Mayor of Julis, said that the tornado damaged dozens of homes and asked that the region be declared a natural disaster site.

Tornados are rare in Israel. The occasional ones that have occurred have mostly taken place over the ocean and along the coast.

Hail was also experienced in elevated areas such as Gush Etzion on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Gush Etzion, an earthquake simulation exercise is being held Wednesday in Beitar Illit, in conjunction with the Defense Ministry, MDA, Israel Police, Israel Fire Department and others. The three-hour training event began at 11 AM.

The Danube rose to 7.34 meters (24 feet one inch) at the frontier between Serbia and Hungary, its second highest level since 1888.

The record highest level of 7.78 meters in 1965 caused catastrophic flooding in the Voivodine province.

Vladimir Milosev, a city official in the provincial capital Novi Sad, told local media, "we are in a state of maximum alert along the dykes, but for the moment, no negative consequences have been recorded. There is no need to panic."

In Belgrade, authorities warned of possible flooding in low-lying areas of the city because of rises in the level of the Danube and a tributary, the Sava.

In the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, the Elbe had risen to 9.10 metres from its normal level of five meters and was expected to rise another 10 centimetres, a local authority spokesman said.

"We have the situation completely in hand," he said, adding that measures had been taken in the city of Lauenburg to protect historic buildings.

The river has flooded cellars and threatened severe damage to 16th and 17th century houses in the city.

Upstream at Hitzacker, most of the old town was under water after the river swelled to almost three times its normal level.

It was 12 centimetres deeper early on Sunday than in 2002 when northern and eastern Germany suffered devastating floods, but authorities said they expected it would not go beyond the current level of 7.6 metres.

"We are assuming that we have reached the limit," a spokeswoman for the city said, adding that the water was expected to start receding on Monday.

Authorities believed it would take around 12 days to drain away.

Some 3,200 rescue workers and soldiers have been rushed to the area in recent days to place thousands of sandbags along the river to reinforce dykes.

Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Hitzacker on Sunday before taking a helicopter flight over nearby affected regions.

"The situation seems exceptionally threatening," she told reporters.

The Elbe flooded parts of the eastern state of Saxony earlier this month as snow melted at the beginning of spring. It swelled to more than three times its normal level before receding.

The historic state capital of Dresden escaped damage, unlike in 2002 when it was badly hit by the floodwaters.

But authorities said they were concerned about the situation downstream in Prignitz, in Brandenburg state, because, though water levels were receding, a strong wind was putting pressure on dykes.

It said the earthquake was located at 89km north of Padang, 366km southwest of Kuala Lumpur at coordinates 0.1 North 100.3 East.

The earthquake posed no tsunami threat, it added.

The University of Thessaloniki said the undersea quake occurred at 2.27am (12.27am Irish time).

"This earthquake should not cause particular concern, because it occurred in an area which is seismically active," Efthimios Lekkas, professor of geology at the University of Athens, told state-run NET television.

He said the outbreaks were mainly in the central district of Mandalay and the northern district of Sagaing.

On 13 March Burma confirmed its first case of H5N1 since November 2004 and the number subsequently rose to five.

Mr He, who is the FAO's Asia-Pacific representative, was speaking after two teams from the agency visited Burma to assess the situation.

He said it had not been easy to find accurate information.

"The issue there is that awareness is rather poor," he said. "The information is not that comprehensive."

He said Burma lacked scientific equipment and facilities to deal with the outbreaks and would need international assistance.

UN help

UN bird flu co-ordinator David Nabarro, who is currently visiting South East Asia, said there were major problems in Burma.

"We're going to be focusing on Myanmar [Burma] a lot in the next few days and weeks, trying to make sure that the authorities and civil society are able to cope better," he said.

On 13 March Burma told the FAO that it had detected the first outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the central town of Mandalay, 700km (450 miles) north of Rangoon.

Five thousand chickens were culled and state media warned people to report suspected infections promptly.

There have been no reported human victims of the virus in Burma. More than 100 people around the world have died from the H5N1 strain of the disease since 2003.

The vast majority of the deaths have been in Asia, but cases in people and birds have also been recorded in Europe and Africa.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily between humans, possibly sparking a pandemic, but there is no evidence that this has happened yet.

The confidential papers - seen by the Sunday Telegraph - show that a serious lack of long-distance- HGV drivers willing to go to infected areas is seen in Whitehall as a potential "pinch point" if avian flu takes a grip. The papers reveal government concern over a lack of preparation for a pandemic among the biggest food firms.

They also show how, in the event of a serious outbreak overseas, the Government will give preventive medicine to embassy and consular staff - but not to British holidaymakers or UK nationals who live in an infected country.

The Government fears that any pandemic could last more than six months. The documents say that Whitehall should be on alert for a pandemic on an "extended time-scale - certainly for six months ... and perhaps longer". They also suggest "more than one pandemic wave" of bird flu.

Senior vet Douglas Gray inspects a dead swan in Aberdeen
Senior vet Douglas Gray inspects a dead swan in Aberdeen

The documents were drawn up on March 22, a fortnight before a dead swan in a village in Fife was found to have the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. The swan, which was washed ashore in the village of Cellardyke, had a strain similar to that contracted by 100 birds in Germany. Tests are continuing on hundreds of other dead birds, but none - apart from the swan - has tested positive for H5N1. Fourteen other birds that gave rise to concern tested negative.

The documents show a lack of preparedness in Whitehall that ministers and officials are working round the clock to combat. Their disclosure came as the Government was accused of "astonishing complacency" over planning, with farmers angry about confusing advice and the £1.2 billion poultry industry braced for a consumer backlash.

Industry leaders and poultry staff called for vaccinations to protect birds and farm workers, amid claims that the situation was becoming reminiscent of the foot and mouth crisis, which left thousands of animals on giant pyres.

The Government papers, which have been discussed by the "Cabinet Committee on Influenza Pandemic Planning", include a blueprint for "managing the response" to a pandemic. Whitehall would go into what officials call a full-scale "battle rhythm" with Tony Blair lined up to take personal charge at an as yet unspecified stage.

It is understood that two issues particularly concerning ministers are the difficulties of closing large numbers of schools and the provision of masks to large numbers of people, should the need arise.

A Government paper revealed last week suggested that families might have to wait up to four weeks to bury their dead. Ministers warned that up to 320,000 people could die in a pandemic.

The Cabinet documents reveal how the Environment Department fears that no large-scale plans to combat a pandemic have been lined up by big food companies apart from Marks & Spencer - suggesting a chronic lack of preparedness. They add: "HGV drivers had been identified as a potential pinch-point by some sectors. Various mitigation options were being discussed, including using retired drivers or off-duty fire service personnel, and lifting the requirements of the Working Time Directive."

An accompanying memo by Lord Triesman, the junior foreign office minister, puts forward an exhaustive plan for coping with a bird flu outbreak abroad. In the event of humans being infected, the document suggests, "we may come under pressure from the media and the British public at home to appear to be doing more for our nationals immediately affected by the virus. In particular we would hope to deal with the potential sensitivity of providing Tamilflu antiviral treatment for use by overseas mission staff and their dependents diagnosed with the flu virus under our duty of care obligations, but not to British nationals."

The document admits that France would supply preventive medicine to its overseas citizens while Britons will be told to fend for themselves.