"In case of a complete pandemic we are ready to close all of the schools in France," Chatel told the Paris-based daily Le Figaro. "No threshold has been fixed for the closing of a school. It will be adapted on a case-by-case basis," said the minister.

Lessons would be given via the internet and public broadcasting channels, Chatel revealed. Preparations for such a scenario are already complete.

French authorities had, over the summer, worked on distance learning materials that can be broadcast on television, radio and the internet to help students forced to stay home keep up with their classes, he added.

Chatel told the newspaper the French government was not planning a general vaccination of all children against swine flu, although this could be reviewed at any given time.

Twelve million information brochures on the virus will be distributed in schools to coincide with the beginning of term in September, the minister added.

Return to school puts France on alert

French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said the virus will gain ground when children go back to school, and Paris will probably raise its swine flu alert then, triggering the measures, including possible school closures, that Chatel spoke of in the Le Figaro interview.

Yet doctors and health experts remain divided over the threat it poses.

"Everything we're doing is just making people scared," French urologist Bernard Debre, who is also a parliament deputy in the party of President Nicolas Sarkozy, told reporters. Debre described the illness as just a "little flu."

Before the summer holidays the French government ordered the closure of a number of schools after pupils were infected by the H1N1 virus. In future, any such decision would be made by the local prefects together with the school administration.

France has recorded around 1,000 swine flu infections and one death, but authorities are concerned the resumption of school will fuel a sharp acceleration in the spread of the virus.

EU struggling for unity over swine flu measures

The closure of schools has been discussed all across Europe in light of the ongoing spread of the virus.

During a meeting in Brussels last week, EU health experts struggled to draw up a common strategy to confront swine flu before children return to school in September.

The health officials examined a British proposal to delay school re-openings until the end of September to help buy time so vaccines and other responses can be prepared.

Other ideas on the table include the possibility of stopping people with flu symptoms from boarding aircraft. Greece's announcement that it would vaccinate its entire population came as a surprise.

"Everyone's doing whatever they want," one official at the European Commission told reporters. The Commission was caught out by Athens's decision Friday to vaccinate up to 11 million citizens and residents.

Indeed, jurisdiction over health matters rests with each of the EU's 27 member nations and "the governments are jealously protecting this right to decide what to do in any emergency," he said.

EU countries taking unilateral decisions

Despite this, Brussels is trying to harmonize efforts to better respond to the A(H1N1) virus, which has killed a total of around 40 people in EU nations Belgium, Britain, France, Hungary and Spain.

Thirteen countries have already informed the EU Commission about precautionary measures they plan to take to mitigate the impact of the disease, which first surfaced in Mexico and has killed more than 800 people around the globe.

Germany and Italy plan to vaccinate around a third of their populations.

EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has committed to make a report on Sept. 16 listing the priority actions to take, which the European health ministers will use as the basis for extraordinary talks on October 12.

Work on a vaccine is well advanced, but it remains unclear whether it would be ready in sufficient quantities by the time children return to school, a period of risk, according to health officials.

"As children will have no residual immunity, they could be amongst the groups worst affected and can be 'super-spreaders'," said a British health ministry document listing options to limit the spread of the virus.

The move to delay the return to school would buy time for more preventative action to be taken but it would come at a cost to business and families.

"Whilst this would disrupt education and have a significant negative effect on services and businesses, particularly those highly dependent on working parents, these disadvantages would be outweighed by the children's lives saved," the document said.

nda/AFP/dpa/AP
Editor: Nancy Isenson