Romanian President Traian Basescu left hospital on Wednesday to dedicate his first day "out" to the concerted efforts of the Romanian leadership in dealing with the ongoing bird flu outbreak. He left the Elias Hospital in Bucharest directly to the Government headquarters to take part in a governmental session on the bird flu.

He used the occasion to criticize the government and other authorities for the way they tackled the H5 crisis across the country, naming Agriculture minister Gheorghe Flutur among those to be blamed for the quick spread of H5 hotbeds in many counties.

President Basescu spent the last couple of weeks in hospital after he followed an emergency hernia surgery in an Austrian clinic earlier this month.

He said today the way Romanian authorities dealt with the bird flu crisis was chaotic, carried in a miscellaneous manner and caring mostly about their public image than the fate of people from the affected regions.

His intervention came as the latest bird flu toll the Agriculture Ministry published on Wednesday puts the number of hotbeds at 46 in ten counties across Romania and Bucharest – two more than on Tuesday.