Officials made the grim assessment as they announced that China's cabinet, the State Council, had adopted tough emergency laws requiring local governments and people to respond quickly to bird flu and other animal diseases.

The 21 outbreaks occurred in nine provinces in mainland China, affecting 45 villages and causing the deaths of 144,624 birds, while a further 21.1 million have been culled, Vice Agriculture Minister Yin Chengjie said.

"Although some cases in affected areas have been controlled effectively, the whole situation of avian flu control is still severe," Yin told reporters at a briefing.

"The task ahead of us is still arduous."

China had previously announced 19 outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 virus this year, including 17 since October 19.

With the world's biggest poultry industry -- 14 billion fowls produced each year -- China faces a crisis that is far from over, Yin warned.

He said the danger was expected to grow as temperatures dropped across the nation throughout winter, making it easier for viruses to stay alive.

"The colder the weather is, the higher the risk of epidemics breaking out," Yin said.

Controlling the outbreaks is also getting more difficult as the bird flu gets more virulent, he said.

"The virulence of bird flu can not only lead to the deaths of chickens but can also affect water fowl such as ducks and geese," he said.

"This situation was hard to find in the past."

Yin also admitted that "backward" farming methods in China, with poultry being raised alongside livestock in family farms, also made controlling the spread of H5N1 "difficult."

Grassroots-level prevention was also "lagging," he said.

The new emergency regulations, adopted on November 16, outline the obligations of every level of government, as well as people and companies, when faced with a potential bird flu outbreak.

Yin said the new laws require the reporting of outbreaks in a timely manner, dealing with them "promptly and resolutely," and being fully prepared with adequate financial resources, medical supplies and personnel.

"For any cases of false reporting or late reporting, severe punishment will be applied," Yin said.

To combat bird flu, China also announced this month it would vaccinate all poultry in the country, a challenging task that officials defended Monday.

Sixty percent of the nation's 5.2 billion existing poultry stock have now been vaccinated, said Jia Youling, director of the agriculture ministry's veterinary bureau.

Jia rejected criticism that vaccinating the entire poultry population would allow immunised birds to continue carrying and spreading the disease without showing symptoms of sickness.

China was accused of a dangerous cover-up during the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis when authorities failed to report accurate figures until months after the initial outbreak.

SARS later spread globally to infect more than 8,000 people and kill at least 800 worldwide, including 349 in China.

The government insisted Monday it would do its best not to allow a repeat of SARS.

"China is a responsible country. We must contain the disease in our country and not let it spread to other countries," Cao Kangtai, director of the State Council's legislative affairs office, told reporters.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003. China reported its first human fatality this month.

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