UN: The UN general assembly has ended a three-day conference on HIV/Aids with a declaration of commitment to increase funding for treatment and prevention and to target resources to the groups most at risk.
After hours of heated negotiations, delegates agreed a compromise text that addressed some of the moral disputes that pitted the United States and Arab countries against most other member states.
The final declaration mentions "vulnerable groups", a euphemism for sex workers, intravenous drug users and men who have sex with men, and encourages "expanded access to essential commodities, including male and female condoms and sterile injecting equipment", as well as abstinence and fidelity.
It also advocates "harm reduction efforts related to drug use", a reference to needle exchange programmes for intravenous drug users.
The compromise came after civil society groups protested that the declaration was in danger of being a weaker statement than one adopted in 2001.
The declaration is non-binding but HIV/Aids advocacy groups said it was an important document that could be used to hold national governments to account.
The UN aims to ensure that all those who need treatment will receive it by 2010.
However, there is a shortfall of more than $20 billion in commitments made by governments.
The US gives more than any other country to the global fight against HIV/Aids and US first lady Laura Bush said the United States has helped to provide treatment to more than 560,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa.
"This direct medical care keeps people in good health. And education is spreading hope. Millions are now learning to live with HIV/Aids, instead of waiting to die from it," she said.
Ms Bush said there were too few doctors and nurses to deal with the Aids crisis and called on governments in all UN member states to help to provide health workers to fight the pandemic.
"All people need to know how Aids is transmitted, and every country has an obligation to educate its citizens.
"This is why every country must also improve literacy, especially for women and girls, so that they can make wise choices that will keep them healthy and safe," she said.
Ms Bush said the US would propose the designation of an annual International HIV Testing Day, modelled on a programme that has proved successful in the US.
"Life-saving treatment never reaches people who do not know they're infected. So we must make sure more people know their HIV status," she said.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan, addressing the conference after the first lady, told delegates that reversing the pandemic required every world leader "to decide and declare that AIDS stops with me".
"I look to every one of you to demonstrate this personal commitment in the declaration that you adopt today," he said.