A U.S. official says the United States will provide an additional 320-million dollars for the global fight against bird flu.

Paula Dobriansky (file photo)

Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky announced the pledge Saturday at an international bird flu conference in Egypt at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

She warned against complacency in fighting avian flu, which the United Nations says could cause a pandemic.

The U.S. pledge brings to about $950 million Washington's total contribution to fight bird flu, which has killed 245 people in Asia, Africa and Europe since 2003.

In some cases, the avian virus has been passed from infected birds to humans with fatal results.  Experts fear the virus could become transmissible from person to person. 

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.