An 11-year-old boy was confirmed as Indonesia´s 50th bird flu fatality, a health ministry official said as the nation continues to grapple with fresh outbreaks of the virus.

Indonesia, the world´s fourth most populous nation, reported its first bird flu deaths in July last year and has since seen a steady rise in its toll as H5N1 has spread across poultry flocks in 29 of its 33 provinces.

The latest victim died on Monday and test results from two laboratories confirmed he was carrying bird flu, Nadirin, a doctor at the national bird flu information centre, told AFP.

Tests from two laboratories are required for the WHO to include the fatality in its toll.

Nadirin said that the latest fatality brought the number of confirmed deaths to 50, the highest reported anywhere in the world.

The boy, identified only by the initial A., came from Karanggentong in densely-populated East Java and had come into contact with sick poultry, the usual method of transmission of the virus, the doctor said.

He had developed a fever, cough and breathing difficulties two days before he died, the doctor added.

While H5N1 does not spread easily among people, the chance of a mutation that would allow it to do so is heightened as more humans catch it from infected birds.

Scientists fear that if this occurs, a global flu pandemic with a massive death toll could result.

Indonesia has complained that international donors have been too sluggish in providing aid to assist authorities fight the virus, with donors apparently reluctant to stump up cash when the government itself appeared to be cutting its own budget for next year.

David Nabarro, senior UN co-ordinator for bird flu, said last week however that the government had told him this was not the case and that Jakarta had made the progress required by donors to release funds.

Officials here have said they need around 250 million dollars for each of the next three years to fight the spread of the virus. Only about 100 million dollars have been pledged for this year.

Among confidence building measures to be implemented to get the funds rolling will be a timebound checklist to be monitored by the government and donors of work to be done.

The WHO warned earlier this week that the Asia-Pacific region is still not prepared to handle the threat from emerging infectious disease such as bird flu.