Thai fans of cock fighting, a sport popular in both town and countryside, will have to wait to place their next bet until the bird flu epidemic is over, the government has said.

Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphana said cock fighting had been banned temporarily because of fears the birds were often taken long distances to their sand-pit arenas and might spread the avian influenza which has now hit 10 Asian countries.

The bird flu, which has killed at least 12 people in Vietnam and Thailand, had been spread to southern Thailand by fighting cocks transported there from areas with major outbreaks in the north and centre of the country, she told reporters.

"Outbreaks in some areas, which should not have caught the disease, were caused by movements of fighting cocks," Sudarat said on Tuesday. "Therefore the cabinet decided today to ban cock fighting until the epidemic is over."

A four-year-old boy from the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, who died of suspected bird flu on Tuesday, lived in a village where many fighting cocks had died, she said.

That took the number of suspected human infections in Thailand to 18, of whom 11 have died. Laboratory tests have not yet confirmed the deaths were attributable to bird flu.

Thailand has had four confirmed cases, three of whom have died and the fourth, a seven-year-old boy, is given only a 30 percent chance of survival. Thailand, the world's fourth biggest chicken exporter, has killed 30 million poultry and is hopeful it has turned the corner.

The number of "red zones" -- the five-km area around a confirmed outbreak within which all poultry must be slaughtered -- had shrunk by half to 18 in seven provinces from 35 in 16 provinces on Monday, a government spokesman said.

Last week, Thailand had "red zones" in 29 of its 76 provinces.

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