BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain's efforts to contain thespread of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu won approval fromthe European Commission on Tuesday, confirming restrictions onpoultry movement and setting up a series of high-risk zones.

British authorities had already set up a protection zonewith a radius of 3 km (2 miles) and a surveillance zone of 10km (4 miles) around the affected site in eastern England whereofficials began slaughtering thousands of turkeys on Tuesday.

"In the restricted zone, all domestic birds must be keptindoors, and all gatherings of poultry and other captive birdsare prohibited in England," the Commission said in a statement.

"Poultry cannot be moved (except directly to theslaughterhouse) and meat cannot be dispatched from the zoneunless very stringent conditions are met."

(Reporting by Jeremy Smith, editing by Paul Taylor)