January 19, 2006	Thursday	Zilhaj 18, 1426

BEIJING: An international bird flu conference has mobilized 1.9 billion dollars in pledges from countries and organizations for a first-ever global war chest to fight the killer virus which is at risk of becoming a pandemic.

The figure far surpassed the 1.5 billion dollar target of the two-day International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Influenza which ended on Wednesday in Beijing and was attended by officials from half the nations on the planet.

“It was a conference of commitment and pledging that really showed solidarity,” the UN’s coordinator on avian and human influenza, David Nabarro, told reporters.

“We’ve got a fantastic set of pledges from poor countries as well as rich countries.

“Even countries that cannot put money into the funding are saying we are going to commit our people and our governments to get the results.”

Nearly one billion dollars had been pledged in grants, which would go mainly to poor countries in Southeast Asia and Africa.

The other 900 million dollars would come in loans.—AFP