GENEVA, April 28 (Reuters) - The WHO said on Tuesday it awaited formal confirmation from U.S. authorities the new swine flu virus has spread significantly between people, a sign that could indicate an "imminent" influenza pandemic.
Confirmation infected people in two countries are spreading the new disease to their families or contacts in a sustained way would meet the World Health Organisation's criteria for declaring a phase 5 alert on its scale of 1 to 6.
The United Nations agency raised its pandemic alert level to phase 4 from phase 3 on Monday as the virus spread to Europe.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday some people who have had contact with confirmed cases were also developing flu-like symptoms.
"It appears, and I think we're still awaiting for a final confirmation from the U.S. authorities, but it appears that there's a number of cases in New York which appear to be human-to-human transmission," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told a news briefing.
Such secondary transmission of the virus was "probable", he later told reporters, adding: "If we have a confirmation from the United States or Canada, we could move to phase 5."
The emergency committee which recommended moving to phase 4 late on Monday -- a "turning point", according to Hartl -- was not scheduled to meet on Tuesday. But its experts could be convened at any time to make such decisions.
People have occasionally caught swine flu from a pig but it has stopped there. Avian influenza has occasionally spread from one person to just one other person and stopped there.
But the new H1N1 flu appears to be spreading beyond that limited chain, which is what worries the WHO.
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