HANOI - AUTHORITIES in Laos have reported a fresh outbreak of bird flu in the northwest of the country near the border with China and Myanmar, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The outbreak was detected in a village in Luang Namtha province, the sixth registered there in a month, foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy told reporters.

'About 100 chickens died,' he said, adding that subsequent tests had revealed the birds had died from the H5N1 virus.

The government took quick action, he said, destroying about 800 chickens within a three-kilometre radius.

The spokesman said authorities had not reported any humans falling ill in the remote area.

Two people have died of bird flu in Communist-ruled Laos since 2003, when the virus resurfaced in South-east Asia, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics. Both deaths were reported last year.

As of Tuesday, the WHO had confirmed 236 human deaths from bird flu worldwide, out of 373 cases.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus mainly kills animals but scientists fear it could mutate to easily jump from human to human, sparking a global pandemic. -- AFP