Washington ? President Bush summoned vaccine manufacturers to a White House meeting Friday, hoping to personally boost the rickety industry amid increasing fears of an outbreak of bird flu. It’s the latest in a flurry of preparations for a possible pandemic after criticism of the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

This month, vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur begins the first mass production of a new vaccine that promises to protect against bird flu.

But it would take months to create a new vaccine from scratch if a different strain of bird flu than today’s known as H5N1 emerges.

The nation has only three main manufacturers of vaccine against the regular flu that circulates each winter.