The Indonesian government has allocated 150 million US dollars to deal with the outbreak of bird flu in the country, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said here on Monday.

"The funds come from the national budget (10 million dollars) and donor countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany ( 140 million dollars)," he was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.

He said the funds would be used to purchase health equipment and bird flu vaccine and to finance the production of tamiflu and public campaigns against the virus.

"The funds will also be used in efforts to prevent a pandemic which, if it happens, could kill up to 12 million people in the country," he said.

The minister said the government had readied more than 50 hospitals in the country to treat bird flu patients and would increase supply of tamiflu, which will later be produced in the country, from the present 850,000 dosages to 10 million dosages.

Source: Xinhua