Indonesia has again refused to share bird flu specimens with the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO had earlier called for a global sharing of data on the disease in order to prevent an international pandemic.
The nation's health minister Siti Fadilah Supari says before any bird flu specimens are sent to the WHO, Indonesia needs assurances that poorer nations will have affordable access to any pandemic vaccines developed from the virus and they are not only available to the rich.
The health minister has recently returned from a WHO intergovernmental conference in Geneva aimed at rebuilding a global system for sharing flu viruses.
Indonesia wants countries who share samples to have full control of their use and access to vaccines.
Supari says an equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of viruses through a fair, transparent and equitable mechanism is needed and is the moral thing to do.
Supari says the meeting failed to come up with any material on a transfer agreement and there is no obligation on the part of Indonesia to send bird flu virus samples to the WHO.
Indonesia has adopted this stance despite being the country hardest hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus with 91 human deaths to date of the 206 known human deaths; Vietnam ranks second with 46 deaths, and Thailand third with 17.
The WHO had earlier urged its 193 members to share information on the deadly virus as this is regarded as vital in order to monitor whether it has mutated, become drug resistant or grown more transmissible.
The WHO agreed last May to revamp its 50-year-old system for sharing flu virus samples with researchers and drug firms and wanted its 191 member states to adopt an agreement by May.