President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization, accusing it of bias toward China during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump told reporters he was "going to put a very powerful hold on" funding to WHO, the UN body whose biggest funding source is the United States.

"We're going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO," said Trump, who pursues an "America First" agenda and has previously criticized other UN and multilateral agencies.

He gave no details about how much money would be withheld and minutes later during the same press conference he said: "I'm not saying I'm going to do it."

"We will look at ending funding," he added.

According to Trump, the WHO "seems to be very biased toward China. That's not right."

His comments built on an earlier statement on Twitter in which he accused the WHO of being "very China centric."

Trump asked why the WHO had given "such a faulty recommendation," apparently referring to the UN body's advice against curtailing international travel to stop the virus which first spread from China.

"Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on," Trump wrote, referring to his decision to ban travel from the country.

China faces criticism in Washington, particularly from Republicans, over the way it handled the pandemic and Trump has expressed doubt over the accuracy of Chinese statistics for cases and deaths.

However, Trump himself has been widely criticized for initially downplaying the virus, which he likened to an ordinary flu and said was under control in the United States, before later accepting that it was a national emergency.

More than 12,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19.

Canada says medical donations won't sway policies
Montreal (AFP) April 7, 2020 - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Tuesday that donations of medical equipment by foreign companies like Huawei in the fight against the coronavirus will have no influence on future government policy.

"We will be receiving donations of equipment from various companies and we're happy that people are offering that," he said.

"But no, we do not expect this to have any impact" on future decisions, he said. "This will not affect our decision on other issues in the years to come."

The prime minister was asked if donations to Canada by Huawei could influence his government's policies toward the Chinese telecoms giant, which is at the center of a protracted diplomatic crisis between Ottawa and Beijing.

At a time when the world faces a shortage of masks, Huawei gave Canada more than a million masks, 30,000 face shields and 50,000 pairs of gloves, according to the Globe and Mail daily.

A Huawei spokesperson in Quebec confirmed those figures in a statement to AFP.

"Numerous companies made similar efforts and we were lucky to be in a position, technologically and financially, to help the Canadian population," the statement said.

"Our goal was to help the Canadian population and not to gain publicity."

In January, a Canadian court began deliberating on whether to proceed with the extradition to the United States of Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, accused of bank fraud by Washington.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested in 2018 during a stopover in Vancouver at the request of the United States, setting off an unprecedented dispute between Canada and China.

Canada must decide in the coming months whether it will authorize Huawei to deploy a 5G network in its territory, which Washington opposes, warning that it would pose risks of espionage and sabotage of western networks.

In other coronavirus developments, Trudeau said Canada will make 30,000 respirators, part of an effort to lessen its reliance on foreign suppliers.

As of midday Tuesday, Canada had 17,065 new coronavirus cases and 369 deaths from the disease.

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