New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said one traveler who a day earlier was assessed as having swine flu had been removed from the list after further checks showed that person had not been exposed to a high-risk area or to people likely infected with the virus.

Ryall said the government was counting 13 other people as "confirmed cases," though laboratory tests had confirmed the virus in just three people. All of those cases, including 12 students and teachers in a high school group, were aboard a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland last weekend.

Ryall more than doubled the number of possible cases in New Zealand to 104, with tests under way.

Officials say the swine flu strain infecting the New Zealand students is the same as the one believed to have killed 160 people and sickened thousands more in Mexico. A 23-month-old child in Texas became the first U.S. fatality.

Germany and Austria on Wednesday became the latest countries to report swine flu infections, with cases already confirmed in Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain.

Asia, so far, has escaped infection though Hong Kong and South Korea said they were testing people with flu symptoms that could be the new illness. Australia also said people were being tested.

Southeast Asian countries said they would call an urgent meeting of health ministers in early May to discuss how to deal with the swine flu crisis.

"We need common measures to prevent and fight against the fast spread of swine flu," Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said. "Southeast Asian leaders should have an emergency meeting right now."

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations said the health minister's meeting would probably be held in the Thai capital of Bangkok _ though recent attempts at multinational meetings there have been disrupted by political protests.

ASEAN says it was ready to quickly tap its emergency stockpile of 1 million courses of Tamiflu and Relenza. Other countries were readying their own stockpiles of the antiviral drugs, which officials say have been effective in treating swine flu.

In Malaysia, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the Southeast Asian country multi-strain flu vaccines for 2 million people, and would administer some of them to 200,000 doctors, nurses, police and immigration officials who might come into first contact with the virus.

International health officials say a specific vaccine for swine flu does not exist yet.

The Philippine health chief appealed to dozens of Filipino legislators to abandon plans to visit Las Vegas to cheer for boxing idol Manny Pacquiao _ even though Las Vegas is more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the Mexican border.

In Australia, officials were testing more than 100 people with flu symptoms for the virus and the government gave health authorities wide powers to contain contagious diseases.

"(We can make) sure that people are isolated and perhaps detained if they don't cooperate and are showing symptoms," said Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

Thermal screening devices were in place in several Asian countries checking passengers arriving from North America, and doctors were board arriving flights in Japan and Taiwan. They are looking for signs of fever that could be swine flu. Passengers showing symptoms would be give health checks, though Taiwan said they would be quarantined.

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Associated Press writers Gillian Wong in Beijing, Rohan Sullivan in Sydney, Vijay Joshi in Malaysia, Grant Peck in Bangkok and Jae-soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.