How do I safely use a virus infected USB drive in Ubuntu?

I have an USB drive which I know is virus infected (an anti-virus on my friend's machine detected it). Unfortunately neither of us know the virus name and I don't want to take the risk of plugging it to my Windows box again.

Of course, in all probability the virus affects only Windows. (But I'm not sure) I want to know if I can safely plug the USB into my Ubuntu Lucid laptop and copy the stuff I need from the drive. If there are some precautions I need to follow what would they be?

Linux systems usually do not execute code from a USB stick when just connecting it. Thus copying stuff from it should be safe.

Keep in mind that the copied files may contain malicious code. For example, some evil java-script inside a html file or an evil office-script inside you word/open-office-writer documents. That means, you should be careful with these files - don't open these files with programs that are known to execute embedded scripting code.

Well, and don't directly execute binary executables that are copied from that stick.

Viruses that work on Linux are rare, but they do exist. I would recommend scanning the USB volume with ClamTk (It's just called "Virus Scanner" in Software Center). This will help you to identify the virus, which may be useful information. You might consider re-scanning the volume after reformatting it as well. It's probably overkill, but it shouldn't take long.

There is very little to worry about. Just copy the files you need to your laptop then format the drive. Don't copy files if you don't know what they are because these are likely to be the virus. Make sure you don't execute anything on the drive just to be safe.