Malaysia today said it hoped to convince neighbouring Singapore to partially lift its ban on poultry imports by the end of the month as a 10-year-old boy warded with suspected bird flu was cleared of the disease.

"We are trying to work out a mechanism of how some of the accredited chicken farms in (southern) Johor and Malacca (states) could be allowed for export to Singapore," Agriculture Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told reporters.

"There is a very positive development on both sides. If this arrangement can be finalised say within a week or so, then I would see the first shipment (of chicken to Singapore) before the end of the month. Hopefully Singapore authorities will approve it, Muhyiddin said.

"I believe it is in the interest of Singapore to import safe chicken from Malaysia."

The ministry's disease control director Ramlee Rahmat told AFP that the only remaining suspected bird flu patient, a 10-year-old boy warded four days ago in northeast Kelantan state, has tested negative for the disease and was expected to be discharged soon.

A government veterinarian, hospitalised at the same time, has been cleared and discharged earlier and no new cases were reported so far, he said.

Birds culled

The outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed 27 people across Asia this year, was found in Belian village near Pasir Pekan in Kelantan where the first outbreak occurred last month.

The World Health Organisation fears that H5N1 could mutate into a highly contagious form that triggers the next global human flu pandemic.

Malaysia has so far culled 1,870 birds and screened more than 2,500 people within a one kilometre radius of the Belian farm where the outbreak had killed 30 chickens and quail, Ramlee added.

Singapore, which previously imported some 130,000 live chickens, 20,000 ducks and millions of eggs a day, has said it may allow selective lifting of its ban if Malaysia implements measures to contain the outbreak.

Malaysia's Federation of Lifestock Farmers Associations said after the first outbreak that the poultry industry was losing RM10 million daily following import bans by Singapore and other countries.