The US government has on January 23 offered to check the availability of Tamiflu syrup for children from worldwide stocks, provide technical support for human surveillance, diagnosis, and preparedness and technical support for animal surveillance and culling.

"We have an experience that it (bird flu) moves very quickly so it needs to be tackled fast. No case has come across of human beings having contracted the disease. But it has to be nipped in the bud before it moves forward," US Ambassador to India David Mulford told reporters.

The offer is for technical devices and equipment and Tamiflu, he said noting that the United States was "very very concerned because of the problem".