JAKARTA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Indonesia will not resume full cooperation with the World Health Organisation on sharing of bird flu virus samples until a fair mechanism is in place, a health official said on Tuesday, but denied sending unusable specimens.

David Heymann, WHO assistant director general for communicable diseases, said on Monday that Indonesia was now the only country that had not shared samples of the H5N1 virus that drug makers can use to develop vaccines.

He said three specimens Jakarta sent in May to a WHO collaborating laboratory in Japan contained fragments, but no live virus.

Triono Soendoro, head of the Indonesian health ministry's research and development centre, dismissed Heymann's remarks.

"He doesn't understand about viruses. Just tell him to ask the virologists in Japan and let them explain to him," Soendoro said by telephone.

Indonesia, the country worst hit by bird flu with 81 human deaths, has accused WHO of misusing its specimens by sharing them with drug companies without its permission.

Jakarta argues these companies use the specimens to develop vaccines poor countries like Indonesia cannot afford.

Soendoro said in the past Indonesia had shared specimens with WHO as a goodwill gesture despite a lack of a proper mechanism for virus sharing.

"We sent the samples in May good faith. It was a donation, a courtesy, in the hope that there would be a fair mechanism in the near future," he said of the samples sent in May.

"But so far no such mechanism exists. It is still being discussed. If we do it again now, we are worried that we will be deceived again," he told Reuters.

He said Indonesia for now would give specimens on a bilateral basis and did not have to share them with WHO first.

Bird flu is endemic among birds in most parts of Indonesia, where millions of backyard chickens are kept close to humans.

Heymann said Indonesia's failure to share bird flu samples raised the risks of a global pandemic.

Experts fear the constantly mutating virus could change into a form easily transmitted from person to person and sweep the world.

Jakarta earlier this year refused to share virus samples with the WHO unless it had guarantees they would not be used commercially.

While it later agreed to ship specimens under a deal with the Geneva-based agency meant to improve access to vaccines, Heymann said Indonesia had not shared any virus samples since the three unusable ones were shipped.

Health experts met in Singapore last week to discuss how influenza viruses should be shared, a debate that is expected to continue until the World Health Assembly in May 2008 when the WHO's 193 member states formally take up the issue.

According to WHO figures, 319 people have become infected with bird flu since 2003 and 192 have died.

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