The Taoiseach said today the fight against HIV/AIDS will not be won without improved international terms of trade and an end to the "impossible" debt burden on poor countries.
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Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York todayMr Ahern said Ireland would agree to debt cancellation for countries with high prevalance rates of HIV/AIDS.
"I believe that lending in very poor countries to national HIV/AIDS programmes while, at the same time, receiving interest on old and clearly unserviceable debts is not coherent," he said.
He also said increased development aid was necessary and pledged Ireland would meet the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product (GNP) on Overseas Development Aid by 2007.
Mr Ahern added Ireland would meet an interim target of 0.45 per cent of GNP by the end of next year. Next year will also see an increase of over $100 million in the Irish development budget, said Mr Ahern. He also made a commitment to spending at least $30 million per year on additional funds for HIV/AIDS programmes.
Meanwhile Sweden today announced a $60 million contribution to a global health fund against AIDS, bringing total pledges to $590.2 million.
UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan, who first proposed the fund in April, estimates that $7 to $10 billion a year in extra spending is needed to wage an effective battle against AIDS in poor countries, where the epidemic has had its biggest impact.
Sweden's minister for development and co-operation, Ms Maj-Inger Klingvall, said the money was to help combat AIDS over the next two years with the possibility for further increases.
She also said she expected the European Union to provide substantial support for the fund. Sweden holds the rotating EU presidency.
The fund has yet to be formally established and some countries are concerned the uncertainty about its ultimate structure and priorities is discouraging contributions. Others have questioned whether it would focus too exclusively on prevention - to the detriment of costly anti-retroviral drugs needed for treatment.
There are also worries the fund will swell drug company profits by buying pharmaceuticals at inflated prices.