Zackie Achmat, leader of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), told about 2,000 members of the group in Cape Town that the government had been slow in implementing a treatment plan which provides for the provision of potentially life-saving anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) for those infected with HIV and AIDS.

"We are ready to go to court within two weeks if necessary," he said, receiving loud cheers from the crowd.

"But we are prepared to talk. Bring us the medicines and we can work together."

The UN's AIDS agency estimates that South Africa had 5.3 million people infected with HIV and AIDS at the end of 2002 -- the highest number in the world.

Achmat, who along with the TAC, has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for lobbying the South African government to supply free antiretrovirals, has regulalry been at loggerheads with the state over the provision of a treatment programme for the disease.

In mid-November, South Africa's cabinet approved the outline of a plan to provide ARVs for those infected with HIV/AIDS, after several court battles between government and AIDS lobby groups.

The TAC said in January only one of South Africa's nine provinces -- the Western Cape -- has started with treatment at some 13 sites, and while others seemed to gearing up, it was the only concrete action taken so far in the fight against the disease.

TERRA.WIRE