"I don't think that Tshabalala-Msimang has been making correct judgments," he said.

"What needs to happen now is for both the minister and Mbeki to come out and apologise to the public," he said.

The government has avoided implementing an AIDS treatment programme, despite a United Nations claim that nearly 1,000 people die each day among a total of nearly five million South Africans who are infected with HIV or suffer from full-blown AIDS.

On Friday, however, the cabinet instructed the health ministry to develop a detailed operational plan to make antiretroviral drugs available to HIV and AIDS sufferers by the end of September.

The decision follows an international AIDS conference last week in the east coast city of Durban where the government took a barrage of criticism for its failure to implement a national treatment plan.

Holomisa, who was a leading figure within the ruling African National Congress early in Nelson Mandela's presidency, said Tshabalala-Msimang should step down.

"The cabinet's decision effectively suggests that Tshabalala-Msimang should resign as she was responsible for the delay," he said.

Tshabalala-Msimang, a physician, has fought bitterly with AIDS activists, refusing to budge on the implementation of an AIDS treatment programme and defending a government policy of promoting "nutritious diets".

She has been quoted saying antiretrovirals are "poison" and that a combination of garlic, onions, olive oil and the African potato would boost the immune systems of people with AIDS.

It is widely believed that Tshabalala-Msimang has taken her cue from Mbeki, who has stated that factors other than HIV could cause AIDS.

Mike Waters, the health spokesman for the oppostion Democratic Alliance, also called for Tshabalala-Msimang's resignation.

"Unfortunately, if Dr Tshabalala-Msimang is in charge of this programme we don't hold too much hope that it will succeed.

"She is identified with the failure of the government's HIV policies; a new personality is needed to transform it into a success," he said.

South Africans, although welcoming the government decision to provide treatment to AIDS sufferers, are only cautiously optimistic.

Monica Ledwaba, who works as a domestic worker in Cape Town, said knew many people with AIDS in South Africa's townships, and that the government's decision would boost their morale.

"No one can afford AIDS drugs -- it is very expensive to get treatment," she said.

"Maybe now things will change, but I don't really know if anything ever will happen. So many people have died from AIDS, why did the government not do something a long time ago?"

Solomon Mkhize, a security guard in Cape Town, said the decision did not make much difference to him, but he also believed that the government was playing political games.

"I only have sex with my wife, not with ever with every women in sight, like many other men do, so luckily I do not have to worry about AIDS," he said.

"But the government has not been reliable on the AIDS issue in the past. How can we be expected to trust them now?"

Jenny Boyce, who is HIV-positive and is receiving treatment, said it would be up to groups like the activist Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to ensure that the government stuck to its promise.

"It is up to civil society and groups like the TAC to ensure government delivers," she said.

"It is devastating when HIV sufferers come to me and say I am looking so well after starting treatment, where can they get onto a programme," she said.

"Before I could only say: 'Put your name on a waiting list for a privately funded treatment project.' Today I can tell them: 'Just keep yourself well, the government is going to implement a treatment programme soon.'"

The plan was submitted Wednesday following a ministry probe into suspected hepatitis B infections which found 6,419 units of possibly contaminated blood products had been shipped from since June 2002 through July 2003.

The ministry found the Red Cross was not recalling the blood of people who donated multiple times before testing positive for communicable viruses, even though earlier contributions could have fallen in the early "window period" where the virus can escape detection.

The Red Cross said it would store frozen blood plasma for two months before use starting next year, increasing the period to six months two years later, Jiji Press news agency said.

If a donor tested positive for HIV, hepatitis or other viruses, the longer storage period would increase the chance that previously donated blood products could be recalled before being used.

The society would also study overseas blood donor systems and consider reducing from 50 the number of blood samples it tests at one time, a technique blamed for causing false negative results, the report said.

CALCUTTA (AFP) - Sex workers in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal are picking up tricks from the Kamasutra, the ancient Hindu treatise on sex, to try to stem the tide of HIV)/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The Institute of International Social Development (IISD), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), last week began a six-month long workshop in the state capital Calcutta to teach sex workers how to minimise sexual contact with customers.

"The workshop teaches sex workers erotic postures, the art of having sex without intercourse. We are calling it safe sex," said Rajyashree Chaudhuri, who heads the IISD.

"We have started the programme as sex workers were complaining of losing customers after they were forced to use condoms," said Chaudhuri, who promotes condom usage in the city's red light districts.

"The erotica, mainly derived from the ancient Hindu book the Kamasutra, describes sexual union through 64 postures which offer ultimate sexual pleasure without intercourse," she said.

The workshop was being conducted as an "experiment" to change the behavioural patterns of sex workers as well as their customers.

"We will assess the progress of the programme after six months," Chaudhuri said.

Calcutta has 20,000 of the estimated 70,000 sex workers in West Bengal.

Last month, India announced a sharp rise in its number of HIV/AIDS cases from the 3.97 million in 2001 to some 4.58 million at the end of 2002.

Sachichidananda Sarkar, assistant director of the state-run West Bengal AIDS Control Society (WBACS), said HIV cases were on the rise in the state.

"Last year, more then 600 HIV cases were detected adding to the total of 1,140 cases across the state," he said.

The Calcutta workshop, supported by the WBACS, is proving popular with sex workers who attend the sessions for three hours during the day when business is slow.

"We have targetted the new entrants into this profession whose ages range between 20 and 30," Chaudhuri said.

"So far, more than 15 sex workers in two batches have got training and they are communicating our message of safe sex."

Sarkar said the workshop was useful as even when condoms were used in brothels they were often cheap and of low quality and ineffective in checking sexually transmitted diseases.

"We have experienced that the mere use of condoms cannot check sexually transmitted diseases," he said, adding that a recent survey of Calcutta's red light districts revealed that sex workers could satisfy most customers using erotic postures.

"It is safe to have sexual pleasure with the least chances of being infected by crippling diseases," he said.

By Wangui Kanina

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Unless Southern Africa can sort out its AIDS epidemic, now affecting an estimated 14 million people, it might as well forget development, a senior regional official said Thursday ahead of a summit in Tanzania.

xternal debt and political crises in Zimbabwe and Swaziland are also set to be debated at next week's meeting of regional leaders.

But AIDS is now the number one worry for the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC), executive secretary and CEO Prega Ramsamy said.

"Our population is being destroyed. We can forget about development (unless AIDS is dealt with urgently)," Ramsamy told a news briefing in Tanzania's commercial city of Dar es Salaam.

With 4.7 million people infected with HIV or AIDS, South Africa has the world's highest AIDS caseload. The disease affects around 40 percent of adults in Swaziland and 35 percent in Botswana.

The August 25-26 summit will also see the signing of a pact intended to curb civil wars by enshrining the principle of strong regional peace enforcement, officials said.

"A conflict in a SADC country will automatically invite a response from other members. Diplomatic, political or military means will be applied to end a conflict in a member state, but if necessary all three will be used," Mozambique Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao said.

HUMAN RIGHTS

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said Swaziland, one of the world's last absolute monarchies, remained a "serious concern" for SADC.

Pahad said SADC would ask King Mswati to improve human rights and governance in his country, where the rule of law is in sharp decline and opposition parties are banned.

Political activists are demanding more democracy and greater limits on the power of the king, who has come under fire for his extravagance in a country where most live on less than $1 a day.

There are also fears for Zimbabwe, once the region's breadbasket and now in the grips of a political and economic crisis, Pahad said.

The summit will approve an action plan for long-term food sufficiency in southern Africa, which has been hit by three years of drought, and discuss how to tackle external debt of more than $200 billion.

"Ways of accelerating debt reduction will be examined. It really does undermine growth prospects," an official said.

Sunday SADC and east African leaders are expected to approve a peace deal in Burundi after a decade of civil war.

Pahad said SADC had scored successes with a cease-fire agreement in Angola last year and a pact virtually ending civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Southern African leaders will also agree a position ahead of next month's World Trade Organization talks in Mexico. Many fear Washington and Europe won't budge on farm subsidies.

SADC comprises South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Seychelles, Mauritius, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Malawi.

(additional reporting by Manoah Esipisu in Johannesburg)

KAMPALA (AFP) - Human Rights Watch, the US-based group, warned that the failure by Uganda and other African governments to tackle domestic violence against women had increased the spread of HIV/AIDS).

A new report by the non-governmental organisation documents widespread rape and brutal attacks on women by their husbands in Uganda, where there are no domestic violence laws and rape within marriage is not a criminal offence.

"We found that women cannot protect themselves against AIDS because they are not allowed to decide on the use of condoms," said researcher Lisa Karanja.

The 77-page report, entitled "Just Die Quietly: Domestic Violence and Women's Vulnerability to HIV in Uganda", accuses Kampala and other governments of failing to address the issue.

"Numerous sub-Saharan governments are not addressing domestic violence in meaningful ways," Karanja said.

"Any success Uganda has achieved in its fight against HIV/AIDS will be short-lived if the government does not address this urgent problem."

The report highlighted 2001 statistics showing that 41 percent of Ugandan women were victims of domestic violence.

It also quoted a police officer who said complaints of domestic violence had more than doubled the following year.

Karanja said that fear of violent repercussions prevented many Ugandan women from even seeking information on HIV/AIDS, as well as testing, treatment and counselling.

One 35-year-old, an HIV-positive widow living in Uganda's eastern town of Tororo, told Human Rights Watch that she had not sought testing or information on the disease while her husband was still alive because she was afraid he would evict her.

"I wouldn't dare because if I was HIV-positive, he would say I brought the virus into the home," the report quoted her as saying. "I have seen very many women being chased away by their husbands."

Human Rights Watch urged international donors including the United States, the Global Fund for AIDS and the World Bank) to target domestic violence -- both within and outside marriage -- as a core element of their AIDS prevention strategies.

It also pressed for new legislation to crack down on domestic violence in Uganda, often hailed as an African success story in the fight against AIDS, with an infection rate that has fallen to 6.1 percent from a high of 32 percent in the early 1990s.

By Gideon Long

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should test would-be immigrants for HIV to stem a rise in the number of cases being imported from Africa, campaigners for stricter border controls said on Monday.

Immigrant support groups rejected the calls and the opposition Liberal Democrats, the third force in British politics, said testing would be unethical and unworkable.

In an editorial on the issue, the Times newspaper--owned by Australian-born media magnate Rupert Murdoch--threw its weight behind testing.

"It is not racist to propose such health testing," it said. "On the contrary, it is the import of HIV and AIDS into this country through immigration that plays straight into the hands of racists."

The paper said it was no surprise that African immigrants with no access to expensive antiretroviral drugs should try to come to Britain to seek treatment.

The government is reviewing its policy on health checks for immigrants while the opposition Conservative Party has said it would introduce tests if elected.

Figures from the government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) show 90 percent of all people diagnosed with HIV in Britain but who contracted it abroad contracted it in Africa.

Some 2,338 people diagnosed in Britain last year contracted HIV through a heterosexual relationship in Africa, the HPA said. The vast majority is thought to be African immigrants.

That figure was the highest since records began, up from just 506 a decade ago.

"This disparity is due to two factors; the very high prevalences in many African countries and the historic links between the UK and Africa," the HPA said.

Some immigration experts say the government should follow Australia's lead and test immigrants to see if they are HIV positive. If they are, they should be barred from entering the country, they say.

The Liberal Democrats condemned the testing proposals as "unnecessary, extremist, unethical and unworkable."

Migration Watch UK, which describes itself as an independent think-tank but is known for its tough stance on immigration, said it supported border testing.

"It's all too easy for the government to say this is too difficult to deal with," the group's chairman Andrew Green said. "Frankly it needs to be dealt with."

"It's just common sense and if the Australians can do it, we can do it too."

HARARE (AFP) - The incidence of HIV/AIDS infection among adults in Zimbabwe has dropped by nearly 10 percent in three years, according to figures released by the government of President Robert Mugabe.

The government tally put the percentage of Zimbabwean adults infected with the HIV virus or AIDS at 24.9 percent, down from 33.7 percent recorded in 2000 by the UN agency UNAIDS.

The total number of Zimbabweans with AIDS is estimated to be 1.8 million out of a population of nearly 12 million. Some 171,000 Zimbabweans are expected to die of AIDS-related causes this year.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said the new figures "indicate a lower estimate of national HIV prevalence."

He said HIV prevalence in ante-natal clinic surveys peaked at 34 percent in 2000, decreased to 30 percent in 2001 and further dropped to 25.7 percent in 2002.

The data "seem to indicate a decline in HIV prevalence" and "give me a lot of hope".

The minister added: "The target is to reduce the HIV prevalence to a single digit."

UNAIDS had estimated that about 2.3 million Zimbabweans would be infected by HIV and AIDS by this year.

Owen Mugurungi, the AIDS and tuberculosis coordinator in the health ministry, said UNAIDS figures and those generated locally differed because the latter used "updated and more accurate" data.

The figures unveiled Thursday were generated using the same software used by UNAIDS.

New HIV infections are expected to hit 166,000 this year alone while there are an estimated 761,000 AIDS orphans in the southern African country.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by HIV and AIDS in the world, with an average of more than 3,000 AIDS deaths each week.

Morgues are failing to cope with the numbers, amid reports of government mortuaries turning away bodies as they are exceeding their intake capacity by more than threefold.