The Bush administration has defended its commitment to fighting the global AIDS pandemic amid criticism that it is not spending enough to do so. Despite proposed increases in the U.S. AIDS budget this year, a top United Nations official speaks of a growing gap in resources between what the world is spending on the disease and what is needed.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for global spending on AIDS to rise to $7 billion to $10 billion a year if the disease is ever to be conquered. U.N. data show that current spending is less than one-fourth of that.

At the secretary-general's urging, a global fund has been established to finance AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria projects in developing countries. Most of the money would go toward AIDS. So far, donor countries have given or pledged nearly $2 billion towards the new fund, with the United States the largest donor at $500 million.

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Peter Piot File photo

The head of the U.N. AIDS program, Peter Piot, says the offers have boosted global AIDS expenditures by 50 percent. But he told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday that the commitments fall short of what is needed.

"If today's expenditure on AIDS were to be maintained only, next year's funding gap will be greater than $2 billion," he said. "By 2005, it will be about $7 billion. The fight against AIDS is a race and so far it's the virus that has been winning."

Dr. Piot called for industrial and developing nations to boost their spending on the disease by 50 percent a year over the next four years, and he said even that would not be enough.

Given the spending gap, several senators at the hearing said the United States should give more to the global AIDS fund than the $200 million it has pledged for this year and next.

"I'm afraid I don't see the 200 million as an adequate contribution in light of what Kofi Annan has called for," said Democratic Party Senator Russell Feingold. "I just don't think it does the job and it does not reflect the leadership role that our country has to take."

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Andrew Natsios File photo

But U.S. health, diplomatic, and foreign aid officials lined up to point out that the Bush administration's pledge to the global fund is only a small part of its overall contribution to international AIDS programs.

The head of the Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, says that total U.S. bilateral spending on AIDS next year will be $1.2 billion. He explained that Washington has not put more money into the global fund because, in his words, you don't put all humanitarian aid in one basket.

"If you put it into one institution and it fails, you have a lot of people who die," said Mr. Natsios. "So having multiple actors who coordinate with each other and work together is a much better approach because then whoever is most successful is the one that should get more funding. If this global trust fund works as well as we hope it will, we should put more money into it. But it hasn't proven itself yet."

Some senators have introduced or are working on legislation to increase the U.S. contribution to the global fund. One measure introduced Monday would boost it to $1.2 billion a year, the amount the Bush administration proposes for its total AIDS spending next year.

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