A Government vet disinfects his boots outside a contaminated shed at the Bernard Matthews' factory farm in Holton, Suffolk. [AFP]

London - China has become the latest country to ban imports of British poultry following an outbreak of the potentially lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu, Beijing's embassy in London has said.

"China has imposed a ban," an official at the embassy said, while declining to give further details of the action, which follows import bans from countries including Japan and Russia.

The official declined to be named Thursday, referring any further inquiries to Beijing via its ministry websites.

According to the Financial Times business daily in London, citing an embassy official, poultry and poultry-related products from Britain sent to China after January 13 would be "returned or destroyed".

The FT said China is one of the top 20 importers of British poultry, having imported 1,964 tonnes of poultry meat and offal from the United Kingdom between January and November 2006.

Asian-strain H5N1, which has killed more than 160 people across the world since 2003, was discovered at a turkey farm in eastern England earlier this month.

Health chiefs have said the risk to human health is negligible. A slaughterhouse on the farm was given the green light to resume work earlier this week.