LONDON, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- British experts from the Medical Research Council are to travel to China and Vietnam to investigate the bird flu outbreak which has claimed 60 lives.

    Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson warned a bird flu pandemic could kill 50,000 people in Britain and a death toll of 750,000 was "not impossible", the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Monday.

    "In a normal winter flu year... flu actually kills in excess of 12,000 people," he said.

    In Liam's view, a deadly outbreak would come when bird flu mutated with human flu but was unlikely to happen this winter.

    The team of experts are expected to present their findings based on their trip on how to tackle an outbreak of the virus to an international conference in London in December.

    The council which discovered the flu virus in 1933 is regarded as a world leader in bird flu research.

    Britain has so far stockpiled 2.5 million doses of anti-viral drugs and may restrict travel if there is an outbreak.

    On Saturday, tests in Britain confirmed a case in Romania of a strain of bird flu which is potentially deadly to humans, sparking fears that avian flu could spread to the country through migrating birds.

    Liam said it was "less likely" that any new flu strain would come this year. But he added if the flu first emerged in another part of the world it would give British scientists time to try to create an effective vaccine against the virus before it arrived in Britain.

    The government released a contingency plan on Thursday, which outlines the steps to take in the event of an outbreak. Enditem