An Iraqi girl who died on Jan. 17 in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, had bird flu, Iraq's health minister said on Monday, despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) having initially ruled that out.

"The test of Tijan's blood emphasised that she had bird flu from the kind that kills humans," Health Minister Abdul Muttalib Mohammed Ali told a news briefing in Sulaimaniya, referring to the teenager, Tijan Abdel-Qader.

Dr Shirko Abdullah, manager of health department in Sulaimaniya, told Reuters: "The (Iraqi) health minister based his remarks on a report he received from a Cairo laboratory that indicated that the blood samples had H5N1."

"We have been told by the Iraqi Health Ministry that the result was positive for H5N1," said WHO spokeswoman Maria Cheng in Geneva.
"It was ruled out before because all the indications at the time were that it was not bird flu...Tests done in a laboratory in Baghdad had come back negative."

But she said testing for bird flu is complex and it would not be the first time that first diagnoses have been revised subsequently.

The WHO said on Saturday it was also carrying out tests on the girl's uncle, who died last Friday.

Sulaimaniya is close to Iraq's border with Turkey, which has reported an outbreak of the deadly avian virus among people.

Iraqi officials have said previously that the girl lived close to a lake that is a haven for migratory birds flying south from Turkey, where more than 20 people have been confirmed as having the H5N1 virus.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Iraqi villager herds his ducks, Monday, Jan. 30, 2006, in Raniya, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)