Some $1.5 billion is needed to fight the spread of bird flu, a conference opening tomorrow in Beijing will be told.
Senior UN co-ordinator for avian and human influenza David Nabarro has said that the money "is really a very small amount in comparison with the total cost to the world of a pandemic".
The two-day conference - sponsored by the World Bank, the European Union and the Chinese government - is aiming to develop a strategy to prevent the deadly H5N1 virus triggering a human pandemic.
Representatives from 89 countries will attend along with delegates from more than 20 international organisations.
Speaking this afternoon, Mr Nabarro said that "until we stop seeing these new outbreaks of avian influenza we cannot say that we have the situation under control, and that means we must stay vigilant."
A Turkish girl (13) died yesterday after contracting bird flu, new tests have shown. The Health Ministry in Turkey, which had previously said the girl had not died from the H5N1 virus, confirmed that her death brought the total number of people in Turkey with the disease to 20.
The girl's five-year-old brother has also tested positive for the virus and is in a critical condition in a hospital in Eastern Turkey.
World Health Organization officials have said there is still no evidence of human-to-human infection, however,
and that human victims have contracted the disease from close contact with infected poultry.
In Indonesia, a 13-year-old girl also died of bird flu at the weekend, and two of her siblings tested positive for the virus.
There was no evidence of human-to-human transmission, officials said.