Stockholm - Mexico, the United States and Canada still account for the majority of the 2,217 confirmed novel influenza A(H1N1) cases worldwide, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said Thursday.

Mexico had as of Thursday reported 1,112 confirmed cases, the United States had 745 and Canada had 201 cases.

"Globally the situation remained pretty much the same as what we have seen in the last updates," Denis Coloumbier, head of the ECDC preparedness and response unit, said at a briefing.

Compared to Wednesday, an additional 170 confirmed cases were reported by Mexico while the US reported 342 new cases of which a third came from the state of Illinois.

"What we have been noticing in recent days is a spread southwards to Central America and it has started affecting countries in South America," Coloumbier added, citing two confirmed cases in El Salvador and one each in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia.

Cases have also been reported from Hong Kong, Israel, New Zealand, and South Korea.

In Europe most of the 142 confirmed cases were reported from Spain and Britain, the ECDC said, tallying 81 cases in Spain and 32 in Britain, nine in Germany, seven in France, and five in Italy.

Poland and Sweden on Wednesday each reported their first confirmed case.

In all, 13 countries in Europe have confirmed or probable cases.

The ECDC with headquarters in Sweden began to operate in 2005, and groups the bloc as well as several non-EU members. (dpa)