The global community will need to spend at least "several hundred million dollars" to prepare for a human flu pandemic in the months ahead, a top World Health Organisation official said yesterday, ahead of an international conference to plan and cost the priorities.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mike Ryan, WHO's director of epidemic and pandemic alert and response, said substantial investments would be required, adding that to prepare the world fully for the potential pandemic with large-scale production of vaccines and other measures would cost "billions".