The Indonesian government said Tuesday that Indonesia has the same deadly strain of bird flu that has jumped to humans elsewhere in Asia, but that no people in the country have been infected.

Indonesian officials previously said that only milder versions of bird flu - ones not known to infect humans - had been confirmed here, although health experts suspected it also was suffering from an outbreak of the more dangerous H5N1 strain.

"The results from the field show that the avian influenza found in Indonesia is H5N1, and Indonesia has reported this finding to the World Health Organization," said Trisatya Naipospos, an Agriculture Ministry official.

Health officials said no humans in Indonesia had been infected with bird flu.

Indonesia only last week acknowledged the presence of bird flu, which WHO officials now say has been here for months. President Megawati Sukarnoputri ordered a mass cull of chickens in areas infected with the flu.

Officials said 111 chicken farmers in the tourist island of Bali - which has been hard hit by the virus - had been tested for bird flu and came out clean. Similar blood tests were taken from 100 farmers near the capital of Jakarta, also with no confirmed cases.

Last week, the government said bird flu would cost the country nearly $1 billion and result in the loss of more than 1.2 million jobs.

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