The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that two members of a specialist board taking a look at the global body's response to the swine flu outburst have resigned over worries related to the perceived disagreement of interest.

John MacKenzie and Tony Evans took a step back because their close relationship with the UN health organization during the outburst could be seen as creating conflict with the panel's capacity to stay independent, WHO said.

Both have been closely involved in discussions at WHO, which the group is charged to review, said panel Chairman, Harvey Fineberg. They each came to a conclusion that it would be better to stay away from the spot as reviewer of their own prior actions.

Mackenzie, a Professor of tropical infectious diseases at Curtin University in Australia, and Evans, Medical Chief of the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, were on the emergency group that recommended WHO's Director-General, Margaret Chan before she affirmed swine flu an endemic.

WHO assembled the Board in April to carry out a believable and independent review of how it and the national agencies took care of the flu eruption. Apprehensions were raised at the time that a number of panel members were trusted WHO counselors and Government workers, who could end up whitewashing any malfunctions.