BANGKOK, March 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Thailand is yet to decide whether to carry out vaccine trial on human to prevent bird flu infection,said the government amid local media speculations about the possibility.

    "There are still several stages of the consideration process," the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA) on Saturday quoted Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng as saying.

    Human safety was listed as the top priority when considering such trial.

    "We need to determine whether the procedures, stages and methods follow the same standards as those used in developed countries and how, and what the level of safety is," said Chaturon,who chairs the kingdom's bird flu prevention and control committee.

    The deputy prime minister also confirmed that one US institution has contacted Thailand's Public Health Ministry on thepossibility of the vaccine trial.

    The news of possible US-Thai cooperation on human vaccine trialagainst bird flu grabbed headlines of Thai press on Friday, while Chaturon was holding a meeting with concerned Thai agencies to discuss the issue.

    However, he noted that it is only an e-mail on the subject sentfrom the US Disease Control Center in Atlanta to the Thai ministry,no official bilateral discussions on the issue so far.

    Chaturon said related government institutions would consider the possibility and the decision would be made later in March.

    Since the first bird flu outbreak at the beginning of last year,altogether 12 people have died of infecting with the disease in Thailand.

    A case of two victims in last September also raised the fear ofthe virus' possible transmission between humans.

    On the other hand, the Thai government in last month shot a national anti-bird flu plan, citing the proposal of culling 2.7 million free-ranged ducks might raise unnecessary panic.

    Bird flu has cost the country about 4.3 billion baht (107.5 million US dollars) in economic damage in addition to 2.2 billion baht (55 million dollars) compensation that the government paid tofarmers for the mass chicken cull in January 2004, reported Bangkok Post. Enditem