By Robin Pomeroy

ROME, June 27 (Reuters) - Bird flu experts from around the world have started discussing better ways of beating the disease which has killed 191 people since 2003 and could potentially lead to a human pandemic.

At the start of a three-day meeting in Rome on Wednesday, experts said a strategy to contain the disease when it breaks out in poultry had worked well in many regions, but it remained widespread in some countries and was far from being eradicated.

"In the last two years $2.4 billion of international finance ... has been pledged to reduce highly pathogenic avian influenza," said David Nabarro, the United Nations' bird flu coordinator. "It's time to see if that investment is paying."

When the H5N1 virus re-emerged in Asia in 2003 it sparked fears that a genetic mutation could produce a strain that would allow it to be passed from human to human.

Although this has not happened, experts said the risk of a pandemic would remain for as long as the virus stays at large.

"As long as H5N1 remains in the world, no matter where it is ... it will pose a pandemic threat," said David Heyman of the World Health Organisation.

At the end of the three-day meeting, experts hope to identify ways to step up their battle against the virus, both short-term measures for containing it in poultry populations and moves to eradicate it completely.

Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary officer at the Food and Agriculture Organisation which is hosting the meeting, said there needed to be improvements in poultry markets in places like Indonesia where infected birds are routinely mixed up with healthy ones, putting the entire stock at risk.

The H5N1 virus is widespread in Indonesia, Egypt and Nigeria.

The experts stressed that changes to local practices had to be made in a way that did not alienate local people and force poultry rearing and trading underground.

"There are cultural, religious and other factors and if we don't act sensitively there will be a backlash," said Alex Thiermann of the World Organisation for Animal Health.

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