Annan urges all-out anti-AIDS fight as UN key meet opens

United Nations, June 1 (UNI) As the United Nations General Assembly has opened a special meeting on HIV/AIDS, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged participants, including a dozen heads of state and several ministers, to unify their efforts to fight the disease.

Most countries have failed to meet the targets they pledged to achieve in their Declaration at the General Assembly's special session on AIDS in 2001, including making sure that young people have an accurate understanding of HIV and how the virus can infect them, Mr Annan told yesterday after the opening plenary of the 191-member Assembly's high-level meeting on AIDS.

''And the world has been unconscionably slow in meeting one of the most vital aspects of the struggle: measures to fight the spread of AIDS among women and girls,'' he said, recalling that in the declaration, countries pledged to adopt national strategies to promote women's rights, protect women and girls from all forms of discrimination, and empower them to protect themselves against HIV.

''Yet today, infections among women are increasing in every part of the world, particularly among young women,'' he observed, noting that globally, more than twice as many young women are infected as young men.

Many delegates, particularly those from Islamic countries, and conservative nations from South America, decline to cite prostitutes, drug users and homosexuals in the final statement currently under consideration.

They prefer to describe them as ''vulnerable'' groups, fearing that the specific mention would recognise the groups. Rights of girls and sex educations are among the contentious issues.

''We need to help them and we need to resist any attempt to prevent us from recognising the need for action and assistance. And I will say publicly, we should all challenge the governments concerned to be realistic and responsible.'' Mr Annan welcomed Khensani Mavasa of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign as ''the first person living with HIV to address the General Assembly''. It is not known whether or how many other infected persons have spoken to that body, but none has done so openly till date.

A dozen heads of state, more than 100 Cabinet ministers and some 1,000 representatives of civil society and the private sector are attending the meeting and are considering a 630-page report on the global progress in combating AIDS.

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