TAIPEI - Taiwan said Tuesday it was planning to mass produce at least 200,000 doses of new vaccines against the strain of H1N1 flu virus suspected to have killed more than 150 people in Mexico.

The plan is part of a strategy unveiled by Health Minister Yeh Chin-chuan, who distinguished himself in Taiwan's campaign against the 2002-2003 outbreak of the deadly SARS virus.

Yeh said he had ordered the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) to acquire the swine virus specimen from the United States.

"Once done, the government will start the vaccine-manufacturing process" at a pilot factory in the northern Chunan town, he said.

Shih Wen-yi, deputy director-general of Taiwan's Centres for Disease Control (CDC), said that "up to 200,000 doses of vaccine could be produced in three months at the earliest."

The first batch of the vaccine would be used doctors, nurses and officials conducting temperature checks at airports, he said.

A new, cell-based technology would be used rather than one using chicken eggs as a medium for cultivating vaccines, according to the NHRI.

No case of swine flu infection has been reported in Taiwan after health authorities late Monday cleared a 32-year-old man who had been hospitalised with fever after returning from Mexico.

Currently, the health authorities are giving priority to border health controls, requiring every airline passenger to be checked by thermal imaging equipment for signs of fever.

Health experts have warned that Taiwan could be hit by swine flu before winter sets in.

"The strain may mutate by that time and pose even greater challenges than SARS did," said Su Ih-jen, former chief of Taiwan's CDC.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, triggered a global crisis after emerging in China's southern Guangdong province in November 2002, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing almost 800 worldwide, including 349 in mainland China and 73 in Taiwan.

However, Taiwan's health minister Yeh called for calm in the face of the latest outbreak.

He said health authorities had stockpiled enough equipment and drugs, including 2.3 million doses of the anti-flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza, as well as 50 million protective masks, to take on the swine flu threat.