A Mexican child has died of swine flu in Texas - the first death from the virus outside Mexico, where it may have killed as many as 159 people.
Officials say the 23-month child had been visiting relatives in the Houston area when he became ill.
President Barack Obama urged local authorities across the US to be vigilant and shut schools if necessary.
Several new cases have been reported in Europe. The World Health Organization has called a meeting on the outbreak.
CONFIRMED CASES
Mexico: 159 suspected deaths - seven confirmed cases
US: one death, at least 63 confirmed cases
Canada: 13 confirmed cases
UK: 5 confirmed cases
Spain: 4 confirmed cases
Germany, New Zealand: 3 confirmed cases each
Israel: 2 confirmed cases
Austria: 1 case
Earlier, it confirmed that the flu was being transmitted between humans and called on countries to check their contingency plans for a possible pandemic.
But the WHO - the UN's health body - also urged caution, saying measures like travel bans were unlikely to prove effective.
France will ask the European Union on Thursday to suspend all flights going to Mexico because of the flu outbreak, Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said.
She said the request would be made at a meeting of the 27 EU health ministers, due to be held in Luxembourg.
New cases
The child's death in Houston was confirmed by Dr Richard Besser, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SYMPTOMS - WHAT TO DO
Swine flu symptoms are similar to those produced by ordinary seasonal flu - fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue
If you have flu symptoms and recently visited affected areas of Mexico, you should seek medical advice
If you suspect you are infected, you should stay at home and take advice by telephone initially, in order to minimise the risk of infection
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"Unfortunately this morning I do have to confirm that we have the first death of a child from H1N1 flu virus," he told US TV channel CBS.
Officials said he had recently crossed the border to visit family in southern Texas and became ill.
Speaking in Washington on Wednesday, President Obama offered his condolences and said the federal government was doing the utmost to contain the virus.
He also urged local public-health bodies to be vigilant and said schools with confirmed cases "should consider closing".
Meanwhile, new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in several European countries - all people who recently visited Mexico.
They include:
Three cases in Germany - two women and one man
Three people in Britain - including a 12-year-old girl - bringing the UK total to five
One woman in Austria
In Spain, the number of confirmed cases doubled to four
Egypt, for its part, began a mass slaughter of all 300,000 pigs in the country in an effort to fight swine flu - although no cases have been reported in the country.
Confusion
In Mexico, there is some confusion over exactly how many people died from H1N1, the BBC's Stephen Gibbs reports.
From Matthew Price in Oaxaca, Mexico
The first fatal case of the virus is believed to have been contracted here in Oaxaca. It is a tourist centre and the obvious concern is that when the visitors leave, they may take the virus with them.
At the local cemetery, a group of gravediggers pointed me towards a freshly dug plot. The flowers on top had wilted under the sun but still had some colour. Here was the grave of the first confirmed victim of the virus, Adela Gutierrez, 39.
One of the gravediggers, Sergio Castro Lopez, told me people here are worried. They are waiting for the authorities to tell them what they should do. I tried at the local hospital to get more information but the ministry of health has ordered its staff across the country to remain silent.
This is largely because the government is now subjecting the samples it has from deceased patients to a more laborious verification process.
Meanwhile, the search for the source of the outbreak continues, with the focus on the vicinity of a pig farm in the eastern part of the country.
The Mexican government is urging against jumping to conclusions and is suggesting the possibility remains that the virus originated outside the country, our correspondent adds.
The capital, Mexico City, has banned restaurants and cafes from serving all food except takeaways to try to prevent the spread of the virus.
Schools across the country have closed, public gatherings are restricted and archaeological sites have been placed off-limits.
There is great fear among the medical community... One of my colleagues that was exposed chose to stay in a hotel rather than run the risk of infecting her daughters
Mexico City's chamber of trade estimated restrictions in the city were costing businesses there at least 777 million pesos ($57m or £39m) a day.
People have been cancelling beautician appointments, wary of close physical contact, Reuters news agency reports.
"The customers are scared stupid - they don't want to go out," said hairdresser Esther Gonzalez.
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