JAKARTA (AFP) - An Indonesian man died Wednesday from bird flu, taking the human toll in the country worst hit by the disease to 69, officials said.

The 39-year-old died in hospital in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, said JF Palilingan, the head of the hospital's bird flu team.

"The toll now stands at 89 human cases and 69 deaths," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said.

The victim's older brother died from similar symptoms earlier this month, but was not confirmed to have contracted bird flu, Palilingan said.

A female university student and teenage boy who died at the weekend after initial tests showed they had bird flu were confirmed Wednesday as having suffered from the disease.

Most human infections have occurred after contact with sick birds. The government has banned the popular practice of keeping chickens in backyards in the capital, Jakarta, in a bid to curb more human cases.

Indonesia agreed on Tuesday to lift its ban on sharing bird flu samples with the World Health Organisation (WHO) for tests said to be key to tracking the evolution of the virus and combatting a possible human flu pandemic.

It had stopped sending samples over concerns drug firms would end up using them to develop costly vaccines beyond poorer countries' budgets.

Firms will now need permission from a country for access to its virus samples under a deal agreed with the WHO after two days of international talks in Jakarta.

The WHO says the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected 282 people and killed 169 of them, mostly in Southeast Asia, since the end of 2003.

Scientists say multiple strains of the disease originated in southern China and spread elsewhere.

They worry the virus could mutate into a form easily spread among humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

The fear stems from the lessons of past influenza pandemics. One in 1918, just after the end of World War I, killed 20 million people worldwide.