BEIJING, January 18, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - International donors have pledged $1.9 billion to support a global fund to combat bird flu, which might have hit Iraq after the death of a girl who showed the deadly avian symptoms,

"I am glad to announce that the total amount pledged by the international community amounts to 1.9 billion US dollars," European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Safety Markos Kyprianou said in a statement carried by Reuters.

The World Bank had hoped the donors' conference would raise at least $1.2 billion.

The United States responded with a pledge of about $334 million, saying in a statement the money would be mainly in the form of grants and technical assistance.

The total EU pledge is nearly $250 million.

The World Bank has offered a $500 million line of credit towards its fund-raising target and its president, Paul Wolfowitz, said more resources were urgently needed.

The Bank itself has estimated that a pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion.

Across the globe, millions could die if the H5N1 avian flu virus mutates just enough to pass easily among people. Economies would be crippled for weeks or months.

"The amount asked for is small compared to the cost of a pandemic we are not ready for," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the conference in a video address.

The Food and Agriculture Organization said money was needed before the virus became a pandemic, adding that the chance of human outbreaks could be reduced if the disease was handled properly in chickens and ducks.

"Fighting the avian influenza virus in animals ... is the most effective and the most cost-effective way to reduce the likelihood of H5N1 mutating to cause a human flu pandemic," FAO deputy director-general David Harcharik told the conference.

The FAO has estimated its own needs at about $130 million in total over three years to help fight the virus.

The virus has killed at least 79 people since 2003, the vast majority in East Asia, and governments in affected countries have urged the world community to do more to tackle H5N1, including providing funds to compensate owners of culled poultry.

The virus has since spread to Turkey and is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, where it continues to kill people and infect poultry flocks.

"Partial approaches to donations only causes more burdens," Indonesian delegate Aburizal Bakrie told Wednesday's closing session of the two-day conference.

"In Indonesia's case, we are not capable of coping with the problem alone. Without international cooperation and financial support, Indonesia will face major difficulties in further developing and implementing its national strategy," he added.

Indonesia has had 12 confirmed deaths from H5N1, while five people have survived. But this doesn't include three recent deaths being investigated.

Indonesian Red Cross volunteers in protective suits show how to clean poultry cages properly. (Reuters)

The deadly virus is feared to have spreading to Iraq after a girl had died north of the country after showing symptoms of avian flu and, while initial tests were negative, officials said Wednesday they had sent samples to Jordan for further checks.

Tijan Abdel Qader, 14, died on Tuesday, January 17, in Suleimaniyah after falling sick a fortnight earlier, said Tahseen Nameq, the deputy to the chief agricultural official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party administering the city.

"After she died, we did another test and we didn't find any bird flu," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that tissue samples were sent to Jordan to be tested for virus H5N1 just to be sure.

The girl's family remains healthy and uninfected and suspects she was actually suffering from pneumonia, he added.

Abdel Qader came from the town of Raniya in northern Kurdistan, close to the Turkish and Iranian borders.

Turkey, which has 21 cases of the flu, is the only country outside the Far East that has reported fatalities from the virus.

Health officials in Iraq's three Kurdish provinces, which border Turkey, say a number of measures are being taken to stop the spread of the virus. These include decontaminating trucks crossing the border, banning the import of Turkish poultry and prohibiting the sale of live chickens inside Kurdistan.

There is also a major public awareness campaign urging people to take precautions, including cooking instructions to minimize the risk of infection.

Iraq's Kurdish provinces are a major poultry producing region supplying chickens and eggs for much of the rest of the country.