Indonesia will allocate 61 million U.S. dollars for an anti-bird flu drive next year, an increase from the 55 million dollars it budgeted this year, an official said Friday.

"The increase in the bird flu budget will hopefully serve as a new stimulus to resolving the spread of H5N1 virus through the 2007 bird flu control program," chief of the National Committee for Bird Flu Control Bayu Krisnamurthi was quoted by the national Antara news agency as saying.

He said the country's key international partners had been committed to doubling their aid to 65.5 million dollars next.

Most of this current aid from the key partners was channeled through the representatives of international agencies. However, nearly 60 percent of next year's aid would directly be given to the government, he said.

He said 28.2 million dollars of the budget allocation and foreign aid would be used to fight bird flu attack on poultry, 12.4 million dollars for human cases and 1.2 million dollars for preventive program at high-risk groups.

Other parts of the fund will be used for research, epidemiological surveillance and public campaigns, he said.

To date, Indonesia has recorded 74 human cases of bird flu and 57 of them have died of the disease.

Source: Xinhua