Thailand was once considered a model in the fight against AIDS, but the man behind that success says the country of 63 million has returned to the days of ignorance and that the disease is making a deadly comeback.

Mechai Viravaidya is widely known as Mr. Condom for the aggressive condom distribution and public education campaign he began in the 1990s. He believes there were 25,000 new infections last year, well over the official figure of 19,000.

While that is much less than the 143,000 infections the government counted in 1991, Mechai says the number is growing fast because of unprotected sex, especially among young people.

"It's clear that AIDS has returned to rise again ... . We've gone back to days of ignorance," said Mechai, who is conducting a second AIDS awareness campaign. "There's no reason why next year it won't be 100,000 new cases."

When Thailand recorded its first AIDS case in 1984, the country was believed to be on the verge of a huge AIDS epidemic due to its enormous sex industry. It was estimated that without action, an estimated four million people would be infected by 2002.

The government went into denial, and things changed only in the 1990s when Mechai, a senator and the chairman of a private population association, persuaded the prime minister to head the National AIDS Committee. The budget to fight the epidemic increased 50-fold, and radio and television stations were required to broadcast AIDS education.

The current government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has spent considerable sums on caring for and providing free anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive people. But Thaksin has not attended meetings of the National AIDS Committee or mentioned AIDS in his statements to Parliament since he took office in February 2001.

"The government budget, the lack of the declaration, the prime minister's abdication from the role, and the consequent weak public education program has resulted in what we have today: a tremendous increase," Mechai said.

Thai government spokesman Suraphong Suebwonglee denied the government was neglecting AIDS but said officials have had to contend with other public health threats.

"In the past two to three years, there has also been bird flu and dengue fever prevention, as well as disease prevention because of food safety and cigarettes," Suraphong told The Associated Press.

He said Thaksin shares Mechai's concern that AIDS will spread among youth. On Saturday Thaksin announced a policy to prevent youth delinquency, including "inappropriate" sexual behavior.

In 2004, sexually transmitted diseases among youth shot up at least 30 percent, and Mechai believes AIDS is on a similar track.

The government estimates 1 million Thais have been infected with HIV and 500,000 have died; Mechai believes there have been 2 million infections and 800,000 HIV/AIDS deaths.

"We think it's underestimated. We don't want to be nasty and call it a lie, but I think it's pretty close to it," Mechai said.

The U.N. Development Program warned in July 2004 that there were clear signs of an AIDS resurgence, with government spending on HIV/AIDS programs dropping from $82 million in 1997 to $25 million in 2003.

Mechai has given up on the government and has started buying condoms to distribute wherever he goes, insisting Thailand need only repeat its earlier successful strategy of public education and condoms. Only 20 percent to 30 percent of young people use condoms consistently, he said.

"With the demise and disappearance of public education, people think it's gone. I've had some kids say to me, 'Is AIDS still around?'" Mechai said.

Europe needs to "wake up" and step up its fight against rising HIV infections across the continent, the head of the United Nations agency that spearheads the global battle against the virus said during a visit to Portugal.

"There is an increase in the number of new cases all over western Europe so we need to wake up again," UNAIDS' executive director Peter Piot told state television RTP at a conference in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

The number of newly reported HIV cases in the European Union has nearly doubled since 1996, with the most drastic increase observed in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, according to EU data.

The trio of former Soviet republics were among 10 countries which joined the bloc in May last year, bringing the number of member states to 25.

Health officials warn many teenagers and people in their early twenties face a high risk of becoming infected because they missed the first wave of safe sex campaigning about the disease carried out in Europe more than a decade ago.

The number of new infections with the HIV virus that causes AIDS has risen sharply in Germany in the first half of this year, reflecting a trend across Europe.

The 1,164 new cases of HIV represented a 20 percent rise compared with the same period last year, according to the Berlin-based Robert Koch Institute, the main centre for the study and treatment of infectious diseases in Germany.

Most of the cases concerned homosexual men aged between 25 and 45 and were recorded in major cities like Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg.

"The rise in these avoidable infections is worrying," said Reinhardt Kurth, the head of the Robert Koch Institute.

"We must tell people that despite the appearance of more efficient treatment, AIDS cannot be healed."

The head of the United Nations agency that spearheads the global battle against AIDS warned this week that Europe needed to renew its fight against the disease in the face of figures showing the number of new cases of HIV has nearly doubled in the European Union since 1996.

"We need to wake up again," UNAIDS executive director Peter Piot said during a visit to Portugal on Monday.

Police in the US state of Idaho have arrested a man suspected of trying to peddle his HIV-infected blood to a blood bank when he knew he was carrying the deadly virus, officers said.

Officers in Boise, the capital of the largely agricultural western state, arrested 22-year-old Kyle Rich for knowingly attempting to transfer bodily fluids infected with human immunodeficiency virus.

"The crime was uncovered by required testing done by the blood bank," Boise police said in a statement. "After investigating, detectives found the man did indeed know he was HIV positive before giving blood.

"Boise police detectives hope it's reassuring to citizens to know that the blood supply is required to be tested and contaminated blood, as in this case, is found and removed," the statement added.

Idaho law punishes the crime of attempting to deliberately expose people to HIV or AIDS with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and/or a fine of 5,000 dollars.

British rockstar Elton John has donated 25,000 pounds to Nepal's only gay rights group, the Blue Diamond Society, to help fight HIV in the Himalayan nation.

The money will be used to help the society run a clinic for gays and lesbians infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, Sunil Babu Pant, chief executive of the Blue Diamond Society, said Wednesday.

"Sir Elton John recently contributed 25,000 pounds (44,000 dollars) for the treatment of HIV/AIDS-affected gays and lesbians and assured us of further assistance in the future," he told AFP.

The World Health Organisation estimated in 2002 that more than 60,000 people in Nepal, a nation of 27 million, were infected with HIV.

Homosexuality is legal in Nepal.