An eight-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu, the health ministry said, bringing the country's death toll from the virus to 97.

The boy from Tangerang, west of the capital Jakarta, died after being treated for one day at the country's main bird flu treatment centre, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement.

The ministry said the fact the boy's neighbour ran a chicken slaughterhouse was a risk factor and it was investigating.

Contact with sick fowl is the most common way of contracting bird flu, endemic in bird populations in most of Indonesia.

Indonesia has had the most deaths from bird flu of any country.

Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human and kill millions.