The boy, identified only as AY, was being transferred to a hospital in West Java when he died late Wednesday, said Hadi Yusuf, head of the facility's bird flu team.

'He has a history of contact with poultry on the family's own backyard farm,' Dr Yusuf said.

Tissue samples have been set away to be tested for the H5N1 virus, he added.

Two positive results are needed before Indonesian authorities confirm a human bird flu infection.

Indonesia has the world's highest number of human bird flu victims, with 105 known fatal cases.

Experts fear the virus, which is usually spread directly from birds to humans, could mutate into a form easily transmissible between people, sparking a deadly global pandemic.

Eleven people have died of bird flu in Indonesia this year, 10 of them from Jakarta and its surrounding areas. -- AFP