JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia rejected on Monday a study byU.S. researchers that concluded that the H5N1 bird flu virushad spread from person to person during an outbreak last year,saying it was misleading.

A mathematical analysis published last week in the U.S.journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases said it foundstatistical evidence of human-to-human transmission in acluster of cases on Sumatra island, where eight family membersdied in May 2006. Indonesia's Health Minister Siti FadillahSupari said the research findings had "misled the public."

"It's pure logic... If there had been human-to-humantransmission, it would have already swept the country andkilled thousands," Supari told a news conference.

"Our scientists have already determined that the 2006outbreak on North Sumatra was not a case of human-to-humantransmission." Researcher Ira Longini and colleagues at theFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who examinedtwo clusters of bird flu cases, said they had developed a toolto run quick tests on disease outbreaks to see if dangerousepidemics or pandemics may be developing.

"We find statistical evidence of human-to-humantransmission in Sumatra, but not in Turkey," they wrote in areport published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases onthe two clusters studied.

Bird flu is endemic in bird populations in most parts ofIndonesia, where millions of backyard chickens live in closeproximity to people.

While it is largely an animal disease, experts fear thevirus could mutate and spread from human to human, turning intopandemic that could kill millions.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way for humans tocontract the disease.

Indonesia has had 105 confirmed human cases from bird flu,out of which 84 have been fatal, the highest for any country inthe world.

The popular resort island of Bali, the centre ofIndonesia's tourism industry, recently saw its first confirmedhuman fatalities from the disease.

Supari said tests done in WHO laboratories in Atlanta onvirus samples from Bali showed the virus had jumped from animalto humans.

"There is nothing to worry about, so far Atlanta has notissued any alarm," she said after the news conference.

Bali regularly hosts large international conventions and isdue to hold an important U.N. climate change conference inDecember with about 10,000 people expected to attend.

Globally there have been 327 cases and 199 human deathsfrom bird flu, World Health organization data shows.