The World Bank said Wednesday it expects Indonesia to have a clear and detailed program that can be funded to stop bird flu, while Indonesia said it has already had such a plan.

At a joint press conference after the 15th meeting of donor countries closed on Wednesday, World Bank Country Director for Indonesia Andrew Steer said that Indonesia "has a broad strategy for dealing with avian influenza that is sound, but as of today there is no a clear and detailed plan that needed to be financed."

"What we are expecting in the coming months is that a clear finance support plan would be concluded, and then there is actually quite a bit of funding that is waiting to finance that plan," said Steer.

The director said if it was done, he expected the donors' commitment of 1.9 billion U.S. dollar made in Beijing in January for assisting countries in combating bird flu from spreading would flow, as the bank would try to aggressively mobilize the funds to flow.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono told Xinhua that the Indonesian government had already made a clear and detail plan in effort to prevent the H5N1 virus from spreading.

Anton noted that Indonesia had made a pledge about the amount of funds needed to eliminate the avian influenza in the Beijing meeting earlier this year as well as through the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.

He said Indonesia allocates over 500 billion rupiahs (some 5 million U.S. dollars) annually to fight the bird flu.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has spread to nearly all of the world and killed more than 120 people.

Experts fear that the virus mutates into a certain form that can easily transmit from human to human, which can kill millions of people.

Source: Xinhua