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AFRICA: Countries assured of Bush's AIDS billions

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 13 October (PLUSNEWS) - Africa could get the lion's share of US President George W Bush's US $15 billion pledge to tackle HIV/AIDS, a top new Washington official said in Botswana on Friday.

Randall Tobias, former CEO of the pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly and Company, who recently won unanimous US Senate approval to head Bush's global HIV/AIDS initiative, said his visit showed the importance the US attached to Africa and the pandemic.

He was quoted by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency as saying: "The intention is to devote $15 billion to 14 countries which account for 50 percent of the world's HIV infection. Twelve of those countries are in Africa, and Botswana is one of them."

However, reports of Bush's original pledge of $3 billion a year over five years being whittled down to just $2 billion a year has raised concern among international AIDS activists. They also noted that the figure included spending on tuberculosis and malaria programmes.

Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, an AIDS, debt relief and trade advocacy group, warned that any allocation for 2004 that is less than the original $3 billion would represent "a broken promise"

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