TEHRAN The threat of foot-and-mouth disease spread international panic on Wednesday as countries banned meat from Europe and warned they would disinfect travelers arriving from Europe.

Barriers sprang up inside the European Union itself, as German police guarded normally unmanned border crossings with France, where the first case of foot-and-mouth on the European mainland was found on Tuesday.

Britain is the epicenter of the outbreak of the highly infectious disease, which attacks livestock such as cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. But the French case shows it has crossed the channel, and UN experts warned no nation was safe.

Although the disease is endemic in many parts of the globe, the news of its spread within Europe prompted the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia and South Korea to immediately halt imports of EU meat products.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization called for coordinated international action, urging stricter controls on immigrants and tourists and warning that the disease, which is generally not harmful to humans, could strike around the world.

"When we look at how the virus spreads, it's very clear that every country is threatened," Yves Cheneau, chief of the FAO's animal health service told Reuters.

He also urged tougher checks on the import of food products, including those carried by tourists, and waste from aircraft and ships, which can spread foot-and-mouth.

More aid should be made available to tackle the virus in the endemic areas of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America, Cheneau added.

The EU and others introduced their own restrictions on meat imports from Argentina after confirmation that foot-and-mouth had infected some of its cattle.

Meanwhile, an IRNA report from London said an all-party alliance of rural council leaders have warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair to delay calling a general election on the same date as county elections on May 3 because of the worsening crisis over foot-and-mouth disease.

Leading Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative councilors in countryside councils told Blair he would trigger a backlash if he pressed ahead with both elections, *** The Times *** newspaper reported Wednesday.

The warning comes as the number of foot-and-mouth cases identified among farm animals reached 205 on Monday, making the outbreak of the contagious disease more widespread than the last one in Britain in 1967.