ROW OVER GAYS, DRUG-USERS HITS UN AIDS CONFERENCE

UNITED NATIONS: Preparations for a major UN conference on HIV/AIDS have ran
into difficulties over the hard line demanded by some Muslim countries on
homosexuals, drug-users and prostitutes, UN sources have said.

The final five-day preparatory session was scheduled to end on Friday, but
spokeswoman Sue Markham said "it is possible that they will continue even
on Saturday."

The UN General Assembly, which is to hold a special session of heads of
government from June 25 to 27.

Penny Wensley, Australia's ambassador to the United Nations, said there
were "serious cultural and religious sensitivities" about parts of the
text, and that "for the moment we haven't seen a way to find the middle
ground."

"There is a very strong wish on the part of many member states to focus on
protecting and promoting the health of the groups that are most vulnerable
and at greatest risk to HIV infection," she said.

"That would include children in especially difficult circumstances,
homosexuals, sex workers and their clients, drug users and their sexual
partners, persons confined in institutions and prison populations,
refugees, internally displaced persons and people separated from their
families due to work or conflict," she said.

Gilles Raguin of the French non-governmental organisation Medecins Du Monde
(doctors of the world) said a group of Muslim countries wanted to drop the
references to homosexuals, drug users and prostitutes from that paragraph.

"Egypt is leading the dance," he said, adding that the group included Iran,
Libya, Malaysia, and Syria.