Indonesia would only accept international assistance to fight the deadly bird flu disease in the form of grants rather than loans, Agricultural Minister Anton Apriantono said here on Friday.

"We don't want to be asked to borrow money. The three of us, National Development Planning Minister Sri Mulyani, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari and I have agreed not to borrow," he said at the State Palace.

He made the statement in response to unconfirmed reports that Indonesia was reluctant to ask for international help to finance bird flu eradication in the country.

Indonesia, he said, had made a presentation on bird flu disease in an international conference held in Geneva from Nov. 7 to 9 attended by such international organizations as the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

"We have already announced our plan to combat bird flu. We welcome aid from any agency that wants to help us," he said.

The minister, however, did not mention the amount of money Indonesia need to fight the disease that had so far killed five people in the country.

He only said his ministry needed assistance totaling 1.3 trillion rupiahs (about 1.3 billion US dollars) to fight bird flu until 2008.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz had told Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono personally that the bank wanted to extend assistance to combat bird flu.

The World Bank promised to disburse 300 million to 500 million US dollars in the form of grants and soft loans to help countries to fight the disease.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) offered assistance as well and wanted to help Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Thailand if the countries asked for loans.

The ADB planned to allocate 300 million US dollars to fight bird flu for the medium-term and 170 million US dollars for the short-term.

Bird flu has infected more than 120 people in Southeast Asia, over 60 of whom died.

Source: Xinhua