UPDATE 1-Osmetech asks for portable flu test emergency approval

* Test submitted to U.S. FDA for emergency approval

* Could be approved within days

* May boost sales by "significant multiples"

* Shares up 14 percent (Adds detail)

By Ben Deighton

LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - British diagnostic specialist Osmetech (OMH.L) has asked U.S. officials to allow it to sell its portable swine flu test under emergency procedures that could put it on the market in days or weeks.

Finance director David Sandilands said on Monday an approval of the test could boost sales by "significant multiples".

Osmetech stock was up 14 percent at 3.125 pence at 1430 GMT.

It said it believed its eSensor XT-8, about the same size as a desktop computer, was the only fully portable test for the specific influenza A H1N1, the so-called swine flu strain, and was able to complete a test procedure in 3-1/2 hours.

Sandilands said the test could end up netting Osmetech significant multiples of its sales revenues. "If you're working off historical revenues then you could see a significant multiple, it could be very very significant," he told Reuters.

"Our belief is that (authorities will) be looking for quick tests at the point at which people are presenting. So from that perspective we have got a significant advantage over the competition."

Ian Wainwright, managing director of Life Sciences Specialist Sales at brokerage Canaccord Adams, said it was "not beyond the realms of possibility" the U.S. government might decide to buy in 50-100 of the devices as part of its preparations for the autumn flu outbreak. "It does provide interesting potential upside from nowhere," he said.

Osmetech signed a distribution deal with Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO.N) in April to distribute the XT-8 and the tests that go with it, which would include the new swine flu test. (Reporting by Ben Deighton, editing by Dan Lalor)