HONGKONG/JAKARTA, March 5 (Reuters) - Bird flu virus samples that Indonesia sent to a World Health Organisation laboratory last month have not shown signs of any mutation, a health ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Scientists need to share and analyse H5N1 virus samples to see if they have mutated to become more easily passed between people as that could mean the start of a pandemic that can kill millions of people.

Such analyses are also needed in the making of vaccines, a chief weapon in the fight against a pandemic.

"CDC has received the samples and run tests on the samples. The result is it is still H5N1. It hasn't mutated. Meaning it is endemic among fowl and can be transfered from fowl to human," said Lily Sulistyowati, the health ministry's spokeswoman.

The lack of mutation means the virus remains hard for humans to catch. Worldwide, the virus has infected 368 people in 14 countries since 2003, killing 234 of them, or 64 percent.

But it has killed millions of poultry. Since late 2003, when the virus resurfaced in Asia and has since spread to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, hundreds of millions of birds have died from the disease or have been culled to try to stop it spreading.

Indonesia sent H5N1 bird flu virus samples in February to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after a nearly 6-month hiatus when it won assurance that it would have access to affordable vaccines.

Jakarta said it sent 12 samples, although the CDC said it received 15 samples from 2 positive H5N1 cases from the country. Indonesia is the nation worst hit by the disease, which has infected 129 of its people so far, killing 105 of them.

Indonesia drew international concern when it defied protocol and refused to share its virus samples last year, saying it wanted guarantees from richer nations and drugmakers that poor countries would get access to affordable vaccines derived from their samples.

Talks hosted by the WHO last year in Geneva failed to reach an agreement on a new virus-sharing system, and the impasse only seemed to ease when it handed over the samples last month.

The WHO says it has begun to disclose how and where samples it receives are used in response to poor countries' demands for more transparency. (Reporting by Mita Valina Liem; Writing by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by David Fogarty)

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