COTONOU (Reuters) - Two outbreaks of bird flu among poultryin Benin are the deadly H5N1 strain, the agriculture ministerof the small West African state said.

In a statement late on Sunday, Minister Robert Dovonou saidtest results from a laboratory in Italy confirmed the H5N1virus in the cases discovered earlier this month north of thecapital Porto Novo and on a farm in the commercial capitalCotonou.

When the suspected outbreaks were first announced by thegovernment on December 7, health ministry officials saidseveral hundred birds were slaughtered as a precautionarymeasure in a 5 km (3 mile) radius around the two separatelocations. All farms within a 9 mile radius were alsodisinfected.

The import of poultry was banned and restrictions on themovement of birds between farms imposed.

"The tests carried out on samples sent last week to Italyhave shown positive ... The two suspect locations are indeedinfected by the group A and type H5N1 flu virus," Dovonou said.

Benin's eastern neighbor, Nigeria, has been one of thecountries worst affected by bird flu in the region, reportingsub-Saharan Africa's first confirmed human death from thedisease early this year.

Its western neighbor, Togo, declared its first outbreak ofthe most deadly strain of avian influenza in June and has sincefound new cases.

H5N1 bird flu has killed more than 200 people around theworld, mainly in Asia, since the disease re-emerged in HongKong in 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

Outbreaks in Africa have raised alarm bells becauseepidemiologists fear the continent's widespread poverty, lackof proper veterinary and medical facilities and huge informalfarming sector could allow outbreaks to go unnoticed forlonger, increasing the risk of the virus mutating.

(Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Giles Elgood)