HANOI, Jan 27: Governments across Asia are being accused of deliberately covering up outbreaks of bird flu, aggravating a regional health crisis which experts warn could yet become a global influenza timebomb.

The virus rampaging through Asia made the dreaded leap into China on Tuesday and a second Thai boy died of the disease as countries tightened defences against a potential SARS-like epidemic.

The rapid spread of the virus - which has now erupted in 10 Asian countries and killed eight people - prompted the World Health Organisation and two other international organisations to ask for money and expertise to fight an all-out war against it.

"This is a serious global threat to human health," said WHO chief Lee Jong-Wook. "We must begin this hard, costly work now." China's Xinhua news agency said H5N1 strain of the bird flu - which can cross to humans and has already killed eight people in neighbouring Vietnam and Thaialnd - had killed ducks in the southern province of Guanxi.

Less than 12 months after SARS wreaked havoc on regional economies, Asia is reluctantly having to face up to a new and potentially more deadly disease. Avian influenza has so far killed at least eight people, but many more have been infected and the death toll is expected to rise as the highly pathogenic H5N1 form of the virus spreads.

Ten Asian countries have confirmed outbreaks of bird flu, mostly the H5N1 strain, with China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Pakistan all battling cover-up accusations.

Carl Thayer, an Asia specialist at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said it was not surprising the first instinct of many governments was to duck for cover, fearing the impact on growth rates and investor confidence.

"We are dealing with regimes that aren't truly democratic and transparent. They hoped the problem would go away on its own but they are now realizing that it is a transnational issue that needs international cooperation," he said.

The World Health Organization says rapid elimination of the disease in bird populations is critical to preventing the emergence of a new virus capable of human-to-human transmission and with pandemic potential. But it now seems that some governments may have jeopardised their ability to swiftly contain the disease by failing to publicly declare outbreaks in their infancy and put in place measures to prevent transmission.

"It's certainly true that the sooner these problems are reported, the more effective the response," said Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO's Manila-based Western Pacific office.

"H5N1 is highly infectious and extremely virulent. It takes no prisoners when it comes into contact with chickens. And the more infected chickens you get, the higher the chances of the virus being passed to humans."

After weeks of denials, the Thai government only admitted on Friday that the devastating chicken disease it has been fighting since November was bird flu. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has denied a cover-up, but has conceded information which could have affected Thailand's 1.2 billion dollar chicken exporting industry had been suppressed.

Thai hospital and laboratory officials said they were aware of infections but were too afraid to speak out against the government which is the most powerful in Thailand's short democratic history.

Similar allegations have emerged in Vietnam. The WHO says it is aware of reports the communist regime covered up a bird flu outbreak on a poultry farm in July last year, although it has declined to do any finger-pointing.

Neighbouring Laos only admitted its bird flu outbreak on Tuesday, a day after an unnamed Vientiane-based United Nations official urged the government to come clean immediately to prevent further infection.

The Indonesian government has also been accused of misleading the public. "Government confirms bird flu after long cover-up," screamed the front-page headline of Monday's Jakarta Post.

Officials had blamed an outbreak of disease among poultry on Java and Bali islands on Newcastle disease, but independent researchers said the existence of the H5N1 virus had been confirmed in November.

But it is China, which sought to hide cases during last year's SARS crisis, that has health experts most concerned. Beijing only confirmed on Tuesday there had been an H5N1 outbreak in the southwestern Chinese province of Guangxi several days after 14,000 ducks were culled on a farm there to contain the spread of the virus. Outbreaks are thought to have occurred in at least two other provinces.-AFP