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Governments prepared their populations yesterday for a grim battle with swine flu after the World Health Organization (WHO) stepped up its global alert and said that a pandemic is imminent.

Amid warnings that more deaths are inevitable, governments launched publicity campaigns, while France pressed calls for a ban on flights to Mexico and Italy urged the European Union to stockpile vaccines.

The WHO confirmed swine flu cases rose to 257 worldwide yesterday and announced it would stop using the term “swine flu” to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs.

The global body said the number of confirmed cases in Mexico rose to 97 from 26, with seven deaths. The WHO confirmed tally from the United States now stands at 109, with one death.

Other confirmed cases include 19 in Canada, 13 in Spain, eight in Britain, three each in Germany and New Zealand, two in Israel and one each in Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson told reporters in Geneva that at least one of the Spanish cases involved a person who had not traveled to Mexico. Spanish officials said that was a man who apparently got the virus from his girlfriend, who recently returned from Mexico.

Thompson said the flu name change comes after the agriculture industry and the UN food agency expressed concerns that the term “swine flu” was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to order the slaughter of pigs. “Rather than calling this swine flu … we’re going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A,” he said.

Mexico’s president urged people to stay home for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy, while leaders on both sides of the US-Mexico border urged citizens to take precautions.

“There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in a televised address.

In the United States, officials urged prudence but said drastic measures such as closing the Mexican border were impractical.

“Which borders do we close, do we close the Canadian border too? Do we close flights coming from countries in Europe where it’s been identified now? We’re told that is not an efficacious use of our effort. We should be focusing on mitigation,” Vice President Joe Biden said in a television interview.