* WHO confirms Taiwan to attend annual health assembly

* Decision allows assembly to focus on health issues

GENEVA, May 1 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation confirmed on Friday Taiwan will attend this month's meeting of its annual policy-setting assembly where the outbreak of the new deadly flu strain will likely top the agenda.

China agreed this week to allow Taiwan to accept an invitation to the world's main public health event, avoiding the perennial time-consuming debate over its attendance which distracts officials and experts from dealing with health issues.

"Every year the World Health Assembly spends a lot of time on this issue," WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham told a news briefing.

"The big thing for us of course is that this year there is consensus on this issue, and it's a critical time for public health as you can well imagine, and we really would be able to focus on the issues."

Taiwan would attend plenary and technical sessions as an observer with the right to ask questions after full members and receive documentation, he said, adding it was unclear if Taiwan could continue working in the WHO after the assembly.

Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province and its agreement to let health department officials attend is a sign of warming ties between the political rivals.

The WHO said as of Friday morning there were 331 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1), widely known as swine flu, including 10 deaths.

The U.N. agency raised its pandemic alert to phase 5 on a 6-point scale on Wednesday, indicating a pandemic is imminent. (For more Reuters stories on swine flu, click on [nFLU]) (For more Reuters swine flu coverage, please click here: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/swineflu ) (For WHO information on swine flu, go to: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html ) (Reporting by Jonathan Lynn; Editing by Sophie Hares)

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