Believed to be the world's first diagnostic kit of its kind, the chip is said to be capable of identifying a flu case and showing the type of the flu virus tested in about an hour.

It will be put into clinical trials worldwide in April this year to test its accuracy, the report said, adding that the chip can even adapt to mutations of the flu virus.

The two companies expect the chip to help contain avian flu outbreaks in both animals and humans and reduce healthcare costs by offering earlier diagnoses.

They said that the kit will be ready by the end of this year tomeet the demand in the next flu season and even in a possible flu pandemic.

Veredus Laboratories is a local medical diagnostics research company while ST Microelectronics is a manufacturer of semiconductor integrated circuits.

In November last year, another Singapore-based biotechnology company, Rockeby Biomed, launched two bird flu rapid test kits forpoultry and human respectively. Enditem