JAKARTA (AFP) -

Bird flu has killed another Indonesian, taking the nation's death toll to 72, the highest number of casualties of any country, a health official said Wednesday.

Two series of tests confirmed that a 23 year-old woman who died on Sunday was infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus, a National Bird Flu Information Center official said.

The woman, who comes from the capital Jakarta, was admitted to hospital with symptoms of bird flu infection on Sunday and died within hours, said the official, who declined to be named.

"Her death now brings the number of people who have been confirmed to have died of bird flu to 72 and the number of people infected in the country to 92," the official said.

The Indonesian government had hoped to eradicate human infections this year but 15 people have died so far in 2007.

In their drive to curb the spread of the virus, authorities in the capital, one of the worst hit areas, have banned the popular practice of keeping chickens in backyards.

Most human infections have occurred after contact with sick birds.

The World Health Organisation says the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected at least 282 people and killed around 170 of them, mostly in Southeast Asia, since the end of 2003.

Scientists say multiple strains of the disease originated in southern China and spread elsewhere.

They worry the virus could mutate into a form easily spread among humans, leading to a global pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

The fear stems from the lessons of past influenza pandemics. A flu pandemic in 1918, just after the end of World War I, killed 20 million people worldwide.