The World Health Organization ( WHO) confirmed on Friday a 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl died of bird flu in Indonesia, an official with Indonesian Health Ministry told Xinhua.

The confirmation put the total cases of bird flu in Indonesia to 30, of whom 22 have died.

"We received a confirmation from WHO laboratory in Atlanta CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) this morning that the blood of the boy was positive, and this afternoon we also get confirmation from WHO laboratory in Hong Kong that the girl's blood test was also positive on bird flu," said Hariadi Wibisono, director-general of control of animal-borne disease at the health ministry.

The boy and the girl, who died earlier this month in Indonesia's Central Java province, had contacted with fowls, he said.

Bird flu has now killed more than 90 people in East Asia and the Middle East since late 2003 and scientists fear the virus could mutate and spread easily from human to human, which could trigger a pandemic.

The virus is reported to have spread to Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

A huge population and territory have hampered efforts to eliminate the virus in Indonesia, Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriantono has said.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, has 220 million people and 17,000 islands.

Source: Xinhua