By Peter Graff

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The British poultry company hit by a bird flu outbreak denied on Friday it had broken rules by importing meat from parts of Hungary that were off limits because of an outbreak there.

British officials said on Thursday they believed Hungary was probably the source of the infection in British turkeys, after initially saying the two outbreaks were unrelated.

Bernard Matthews, which owns the British farm where 160,000 turkeys were destroyed after the outbreak, has said it has suspended imports of about 38 tonnes per week of partially processed turkey meat from a Hungarian plant.

But the company's commercial director, Bart Dalla Mura, said none of that meat came from areas sealed off during January's Hungarian outbreak.

"The material we imported -- we made all our checks -- came from nowhere near the restricted region," he told BBC radio.

"There had been no influenza in (Hungarian) turkey, there's no restrictions on bringing turkey from Hungary and our paperwork is absolutely secure that says that was the case."

British officials initially said they believed the virus was brought to Britain by wild birds and was unlikely to have been linked to the Hungarian outbreak weeks earlier.

But they announced on Thursday that they now believe the strain found in Britain was identical to that found in Hungary and had changed their "working hypothesis".

The virus may have been brought to Britain from Hungary in turkey meat, or by contaminated vehicles, Britain's deputy chief veterinarian Fred Landeg told the BBC.

"The virus has got here somehow. We are focussing our investigation ... on possible movements of poultry meat and vehicles from Hungary, and possibly personnel," he said.

"There is quite a lot of movement of poultry and poultry products within Europe. Those are legitimate and legal movements."

The cull of turkeys on Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk, eastern England, where the H5N1 strain of bird flu broke out, was completed on Monday.

Russia and Japan have banned British poultry imports.

Workers wearing white protective suits, gloves and masks took the livestock away in crates to be gassed after discovery of the disease.

The H5N1 virus has spread into the Middle East, Africa and Europe since it re-emerged in Asia in 2003 and although it remains largely an animal disease, it can kill people who come into close contact with infected birds.

The virus has killed 166 people in the past four years.

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