"It is necessary to wage the battle," Mwanawasa declared as he opened the conference in Livingstone, on the Victoria Falls, saying his government was committed to providing "all the political will that is necessary."

He pointed out that 70 percent of people in southern Africa live below the poverty line, making it difficult for governments to raise funds to fight the disease, which has hit their region harder than anywhere else in the world.

In many countries in the region, around one-third of adults are HIV-positive, he noted.

Mwanawasa pointed out that in Zambia, more than 50 percent of hospital beds are taken up by AIDS patients, and that around 40 percent of teachers were infected.

The conference was a "unique opportunity" to speed up the fight against the disease, he said.

UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, the current chairman of the UN AIDS body UNAIDS, said the aim of the meeting, attended by health, education and finance ministers from Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, was "to find better ways of working together".

Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS, declared that "we are definitely in the middle of a political momentum around the world" to step up the campaign.

That included a "momentum of hope" generated by cheap access to antiretroviral drugs and "financial momentum" resulting from money being supplied by major donors, he said.

TERRA.WIRE