Select Option from mysql database

For making select options from mysql database, we make table with name "countries" in mysql database and fill some names as given blow.

id	country
1	Afghanistan
2	Albanie
3	Algérie
4	Bahamas
5	Bahreïn
6	Bangladesh
7	Canada
8	Chili
9	India
10	USA

After making table, we are going to make function, which returns an array with id and countries from mysql table;

<?php
function getCountries(){
$host="localhost";
$username="user_name";
$password="password";
$db="database_name";
$items=array();
$link=mysql_connect($host,$username,$password);
if($link)
{ //connection is opened
mysql_select_db($db,$link) or die("could not select database".mysql_error());
$query="SELECT * FROM countries";
$result=mysql_query($query);
while($row=mysql_fetch_row($result)){
$items[$row['id']]=$row['country'];
}
mysql_close($link);
}
else
 { //otherwise gives error
  echo mysql_error();
  }
return $items;
}
//Our next step is making HTML form, So make form as given.
?>

<form name="form1" action="simple_fom_result.php" method="post">
  <table>
  <tr><td>First Name</td><td><input type="text" name="first_name" id="first_name" /></td></tr>
  <tr><td>Last Name</td><td><input type="text" name="last_name" id="last_name" /></td></tr>
  <tr><td>Gender </td>
  <td>
  <input type="radio" name="gender" id="gernder-1" value="male" checked="checked" /> Male
<input type="radio" name="gender" id="gernder-2" value="female" /> Female 

</td></tr>
<tr><td>Country </td><td>
<select  name="country" id="country" >
<?php
$options=getCountries();
foreach($options as $key=>$val){
?>
<option value="<?php echo $key ?>"><?php echo $val?></option>
<?php } ?>
</select>
</td></tr>
<tr><td>Your Hobbies </td><td>
<textarea name="hobbies" id="hobbies" rows="5" cols="36"></textarea>
</td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td><input type="submit" name="btn" id="btn" value="Submit" /></td></tr>
</table>
</form>