Each country will get up to 2.5 million USD from the governments of Japan and the United States as immediate funding to begin the process of acquiring the needed technology, WHO said.

"The current global influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity is far short of the capacity needed to protect the world's 6 billion people in the event of an influenza pandemic," the press release quoted United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt as saying.

These grants are an important step forward in the global effort to prepare for an influenza pandemic, he added.

Japan has provided 8 million USD and the US, 10 million USD, for technology transfer.