BANGKOK, March 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday that the avian flu situation of Thailand was now almost fully cleared up, the Thai News Agency reported Sunday.

    The prime minister noted it when celebrating a week in which Japan announced the likelihood of resuming its imports of Thai chicken products by telling the Thai public saying that there were no longer any areas under "red alert" for the virus, and no new cases of avian flu were being recorded although a number of areas were still being monitored.

    Attributing the current situation to close government supervision, he reiterated the safety of well-cooked chicken products.

    Japan has already authorized the resumption of imports of cooked Thai chicken, following the inspection of Thai chicken production factories by Japanese teams of experts between Feb. 26 and March 2.

    However, Thaksin conceded that indications of avian flu outbreaks in Japan meant that the Japanese public was still wary of eating chicken products. Enditem