GENEVA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding an emergency meeting on Friday to assess the latest situation of the A/H1N1 influenza outbreak, said a spokeswoman.

    The main purpose of the meeting is to share the latest information about the new flu virus, including its severity, Fadela Chaib told a news briefing in Geneva.

    She said, however, that currently the WHO still has no specific plan to raise its pandemic alert level to phase 6, and no decision is expected at the meeting.

    "There is no timetable for WHO to go into phase 6, as you know we need to see community transmission in another WHO region and secondly to assess the severity," Chaib said.

    According to the WHO's current pandemic alert system, phase 6 means a pandemic is under way, and it requires the H1N1 flu virus to cause sustained and community-level human-to-human transmission in at least one region outside of North America, so far the only region where a community-level outbreak has been confirmed.

    WHO director-general Margaret Chan has said that she would also consider the severity of the disease before moving from the current phase 5 to phase 6, as requested by some WHO member states.

    The WHO's latest figures show that the H1N1 flu virus has caused 21,940 human infections in 69 countries, including 125 deaths. Most of the deaths occurred in Mexico, where the virus was first identified.

Special Report:  World Tackles A/H1N1 Flu