Jakarta - Indonesia imposed an import ban on pork, in addition to increasing surveillance at all entry points for travelers with flu-like symptoms, to prevent the spread of swine flu, a cabinet minister said Monday. "The import of pork will be temporarily halted until a further progress concerning the swine flu, or until the condition was safe," said Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating minister for people's welfare.

After a ministerial meeting on the threat of the disease, Aburizal said the import ban was necessary to prevent the spread of the swine flu strain of virus that is assumed to have already mutated, and could quickly spread via human-to-human transmission.

Indonesia, which has recorded the most deaths from bird flu of any country, has upgraded surveillance at all entry points for travelers with flu-like symptoms, using devices at airports that were put in place years ago to monitor for severe acute respiratory syndrome and avian flu.

Public health teams have been deployed to international airports armed with thermal scanners and the authority to send passengers suspected of being infected with the disease to special isolation wards at nearby hospitals, officials said.

Health ministry officials urged airline attendants to report any passenger with influenza-like symptoms.

At least 100 people are now suspected to have died of the disease in Mexico, while outbreaks of swine flu also were reported in the United States and Canada.(dpa)