WHO mission leader says felt 'political pressure,' but not to alter report

GENEVA/ZURICH (Reuters) - The leader of a WHO mission to China this year to find the origins of the new coronavirus said on Tuesday the team felt political pressure, including from outside China, but that he never was pressed to remove anything from its final report.

Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO official specialised in zoonotic diseases who led the four-week mission of international experts to China in January and February, also said during a virtual press conference, that the team found "no evidence" that any Wuhan-area labs were involved in the outbreak. Even so, Ben Embarek and others said the possibility merits further scrutiny.

(Reporting by John Miller, Stephanie Nebehay, Emma Farge)