Indonesia and a number of other countries have demanded fairness in access to bird flu vaccine, the production of which is 90 percent controlled by developed countries, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said on Wednesday.

The minister made the statement after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to report on her ministry's plan to host a ministerial meeting of 16 bird-flu-affected nations in Jakarta.

According to Siti Fadilah, developing countries had met with difficulties in obtaining bird flu vaccine. Therefore, she said there should be equality in opportunities in access to the vaccine.

"We demand fairness, and this has been accommodated by the World Health Organization by changing the mechanism of vaccine distribution," Antara news agency quoted Siti Fadilah as saying.

She said the 16-nation ministerial meeting, held here Wednesday, would discuss tighter surveillance, increasing developing nations' capacity, improving the system to produce and distribute quality vaccine.

"The results of the meeting will be presented to a World Health Organization Executive Council meeting on May 9, 2007 which will hopefully adopt them as guidelines for all WHO member countries," the minister said.

She said at least 281 people in the world had been infected with the bird flu virus and 169 of them, including 69 from Indonesia, had died.

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the ministerial meeting on the management of bird flu should focus on finding the best possible solution to existing problems through exchange of information.

"I want the meeting to be able to fight AI on a wider basis and in more systematic dimensions through a new approach in the form of global campaigns drawing on international solidarity," the president said.

Yudhoyono also said it was important that all countries in the world have the capability to produce bird flu vaccine.

Source: Xinhua