BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Indonesia will declare bird flu, which has killed 63 people in the country, a national disaster, local media Thursday quoted a senior official as saying.

    "It has become an epidemic," Paskah Suzetta, the planning minister on Wednesday said. "The president has indicated he will declare it a national disaster so money can be allocated from the state budget's disaster fund."

    Authorities were preparing for the compulsory slaughter of thousands of backyard chickens as part of high-profile efforts to fight the H5N1 bird flu virus in the country.

    "I will show no tolerance," Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said. "Chickens found running loose will be immediately killed, the sick ones thrown into a fire and the healthy ones given to owners to be fried and eaten."

    Six Indonesians have died of bird flu this year, taking the country's death toll to 63, and several suspected cases have been admitted to hospital since the start of the year.

    Indonesia, which has tallied more than a third of the world's human deaths from H5N1, has come under criticism for failing to crackdown on bird flu when it first appeared in poultry stocks nearly four years ago, according to local media.

    The country will raise anti-bird flu funding to 61 million U.S. dollars in 2007, up from the 46.45 million dollars previously planned and the 55 million dollars allocated for last year.

    The international community has also pledged to provide 65 million dollars to help Indonesia combat the disease in 2007, compared to 35 million dollars in 2006.

    (Agencies)