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JAKARTA, Sept 15 (Reuters) The United Nations bird flu coordinator today urged donors to make good on their pledges to help Indonesia fight bird flu, saying he was frustrated by the slow flow of funds.

David Nabarro told a news conference he was disappointed Indonesia was not getting the resources to enable it to fight against bird flu ''with all the energy that is necessary''.

''We're not close enough to what is required, $250 million, but we have made a big step forward to create a condition under which more money can be made available and that is my job, to go to the donors and say, get more money into Indonesia as quickly as you can,'' he said after meeting local bird flu officials.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, the head of Indonesia's National Committee for Avian Influenza Control and Pandemic Preparedness, said international donors had so far committed $47 million.

The United States aid agency USAID today promised an additional $3.2 million on top of 14.6 million already committed and the World Bank also considered $15 million in grants, Krisnamurthi said.

Indonesia has recorded a total of 65 bird flu cases, including 49 fatalities. The death toll is the highest in the world.

Nabarro said bird flu was a global problem and an outbreak in Indonesia was a threat to the whole world.

''It is not a localised issue. This is a global issue and we're approaching it as a global issue,'' he said.

Indonesia had made progress in fighting bird flu over the last three months but Nabarro stressed much more needed to be done.

Bird flu affects mainly animals but experts fear it could mutate into a pandemic strain capable of killing millions of people.

Indonesia has been criticised for not doing enough to combat the disease, endemic in birds in most of the sprawling archipelago's provinces.

Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie said the government had done all it could to stamp out the disease but the task was not easy.

''If you talk about Indonesia, you put Indonesia on the map of Europe, it (stretches) from London to Ankara in Turkey. A lot of the people don't understand that ... so everybody thinks that it is very easy for Indonesia to take care the problem,'' he said at the same news conference.

The government would divert some of an additional 2.9 trillion rupiah ($318 million) earmarked for disaster management this year to the bird flu campaign, he said.

''On top of that we also got the approval to use 15 billion rupiah for culling compensation,'' he said.

The World Bank has been urging Jakarta to increase its budget after it earmarked $46.5 million to fight bird flu in 2007, down from $57.37 million slated for this year.

REUTERS AB PC1931

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