MANILA, 19 March 2011-The World Health Organization (WHO) has assured the Pacific island countries that there is very little risk of their being affected by any international spread of radioactive material from the stricken nuclear power plants in Japan.

At the moment, all evidence is that fall-out is limited to the area around the Fukushima Daiichi facility, and the distances involved meant it was unlikely that significant amounts of radiation would reach the Pacific island countries and territories, including those nearest to Japan.

WHO says it does not recommend any special measures and advised citizens of those countries to continue with their normal lives. WHO said it was monitoring the situation carefully.