Richest nations promise to spend billions to fight Aids

Shamed into taking urgent action, the finance leaders of the world's richest nations have thrown their support behind a plan to set up a multibillion dollar fund to fight Aids and other infectious diseases, particularly in Africa.

Shamed into taking urgent action, the finance leaders of the world's richest nations have thrown their support behind a plan to set up a multibillion dollar fund to fight Aids and other infectious diseases, particularly in Africa.

Details of the package, which could be as large as £2.8bn a year ­ ten times more than is given today ­ are expected to be unveiled at the United Nations General Assembly on Aids in June.

Africa's Aids pandemic is now a holocaust of mind-numbing dimensions but the international response has been sluggish at best. Fifteen million people have died and 34 million are HIV-infected, including 25 million in sub-Saharan Africa.

In some African countries the disease is predicted to kill 67 per cent of today's teenagers. With women twice as likely as men to become infected 30 million African orphans are predicted by 2010, with life expectancy dropping to 30 years in some countries

Last year the industrialised world offered less than £700m to tackle the disease. In that period Aids killed almost 3 million people while an additional 5 million contracted the HIV virus.

The finance ministers of the Group of Seven countries ­ the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan ­ gave public support for a new initiative in Washington on Saturday.

Their statement said: "We will work constructively with others on a health initiative to tackle the infectious diseases of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-Aids."

British officials said it was the first time the G7 had officially called for action to tackle Aids. Aid agencies are now hopeful the heads of state will launch a campaign at the G7 summit in Genoa, Italy in July.

The impetus for financial aid appears to have come from Paul O'Neill, the US Treasury Secretary. Mr O'Neill held bilateral talks with the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, on Saturday and British officials said they were surprised by the enthusiasm of the US.

"O'Neill was very positive about this," said one adviser. "Gordon Brown is keen to lay down a marker to make sure that finance ministers have an input on this."

The World Bank, which held joint biannual meetings with the International Monetary Fund in Washington this weekend, said £2-2.8bn a year was needed to fund an Aids programme in Africa alone.

Last night Mr Brown, who chairs the powerful international monetary and financial committee of the IMF, said: "We have a capacity to help and a moral duty to act." The Chancellor and Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, will hold high-level talks with UN officials in New York tomorrow possibly including Kofi Annan, the secretary general.

Jim Wolfensohn, the World Bank president, said: "Money alone will not solve the problem but it is a vital part of the solution." He said Aids was an economic as well as a health problem which threatened to reverse gains made in developing countries since the Second World War.

Chris Lovelace, the bank's director of health, nutrition and population, said there was mounting optimism key decisions would be taken at Genoa.

Researchers believe an effective programme could cost £5-7bn a year. US officials said America was eager to participate and might be willing to request additional funds from Congress.

But the Bush administration, will want to ensure the money is well spent. "This is not a question of generosity, it is a question of effectiveness," said a US Treasury source.