Malaysia has readied an emergency plan to deal with any bird flu outbreak and allocated RM12.92 million (US$3.4 million) to produce a vaccine for poultry.

Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek said in case of an outbreak police patrols would quarantine areas within a three kilometre (4.5 mile) radius of any suspected human case, the New Straits Times reported.

Health officials would go from house to house to check for more infections of the deadly H5N1 virus, he said.

Chua also announced a six-level alert system in the case of an outbreak, with zero meaning the country is free of the virus, Bernama reported.

Disease-free

"Phase 3, which hopefully will not happen, is when there is an infection, whether imported or from within the country," said Chua, adding that at this stage a state of emergency could be declared.

Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Malaysia had allocated RM13 million (US$3.44 million) to produce an avian influenza vaccine for birds, the Star daily said.

Malaysia, which has a poultry stock of 160 million birds, had an outbreak of the virus in poultry in northern Kelantan state in 2004 but stamped it out and has been disease-free since.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003, most of them in Vietnam but also several in Indonesia, which neighbours Malaysia.