German has pledged to grant Vietnam a nonrefundable aid of 4 million euros (4.8 million U.S. dollars) to help it fight against bird flu, according to a local health agency on Thursday.

Under a memorandum of understanding inked here Wednesday, the aid, to be channeled through the German Bank for Reconstruction, will be spent on mainly establishing a bird flu early warning system, and provincial-level bird flu response groups, said the International Cooperation Department under the Health Ministry.

Part of the fund will be used to purchase preventive equipment for local quarantine teams and communications tools.

Vietnam on Tuesday established a national steering committee to deal with potential bird flu outbreaks among humans when the disease becomes pandemic.

The ministry on Feb. 21 confirmed 93 human cases of H5N1 infections, including 42 fatalities, in Vietnam since bird flu started to hit the country in December 2003.

The Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Feb. 22 said 21 cities and provinces nationwide, which had been hit by bird flu since early October 2005, have met criteria to declare their territory free of the disease (detecting no new outbreaks for at least three weeks) since Jan. 8.

Source: Xinhua