WASHINGTON - THE deadly disease formerly known as 'swine flu' is now called the '2009 H1N1 flu,' US officials said on Wednesday as they battled against a worldwide clampdown on US pork exports.

Bidding to distance the hybrid influenza from pigs, which are responsible for only one part of the strain, US officials again insisted that people could not catch H1N1 from eating pork.

The new designation was in the script at briefings by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting chief Richard Besser and other US officials.

'We're calling it the 2009 H1N1 flu. That's now the name for it,' Mr Besser said.

Pig farmers in the United States, Canada and Mexico - the disease's epicentre - are reeling from bans on their exports of live swine and pork meat imposed by several nations including Russia and China.

Despite the name swine flu, no pigs in the United States are reported to be suffering from the disease, which also has components from influenza strains afflicting people and birds in three continents. -- AFP