JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia is expected to resume supplying samples of bird flu virus to the World Health Organization after receiving a guarantee they will not be used to develop a commercial vaccine that the country cannot afford, the health minister said Thursday.

A worker carries skinned chickens to a market on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar in 2006. [AFP]

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said a letter of guarantee from WHO Director General Margaret Chan was expected to arrive Thursday, after which "Indonesia will resume sending as soon as possible."

The agreement will almost certainly resolve the stand off between the WHO and Indonesia, which triggered a storm of criticism last month by withholding samples from the UN health body.

The country hardest hit by bird flu is worried that large drug companies will use its H5N1 strain to make vaccines that will be too expensive for developing nations in the event of a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Several countries are developing vaccines to protect against H5N1, the strain of bird flu responsible for 166 human deaths worldwide, more than one-third of them in Indonesia. The virus remains essentially an animal disease, but experts fear it may mutate into a form easily spreadable between humans.

Asian and Pacific region health leaders meet in Jakarta later this month to work out a way to ensure an influenza vaccine is made available to their populations.

"We want to change the system so that third world nations are not always the victims of developed countries," Supari said. "It is for the sake of humanity, not just for Indonesia."

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, is seen as a potential hotspot for a global pandemic because of its high density of people and chickens.

The government's decision to withhold the vaccine was a major departure from the WHO's virus-sharing system, where bird flu samples are freely passed throughout the global community for public health purposes, including vaccine and antiviral development.