China, once accused of being slow to acknowledge the threat of AIDS, could have as many as 10 million HIV carriers in five years if no effective preventive measures are taken, state media said on Monday, echoing a grim UN warning.

China says it has 840,000 HIV-AIDS cases among its 1.3 billion population, but experts say at least a million poor farmers were infected in botched blood-selling schemes in the central province of Henan alone.

"If the preventive measures are slack, the number of people infected by HIV could reach 10 million by 2010," Dai Zhicheng, director of the Health Ministry's Committee of AIDS Experts, was quoted by the Xinhua Daily Telegraph as saying.

Dai said the number could be kept under 1.5 million if the right steps are taken and there are sufficient funds.

The United Nations has also said the number could rise to 10 million by the end of this decade if the epidemic is not treated seriously.

After initial reluctance to even talk about AIDS, China has poured millions of dollars into public awareness campaigns and providing free antiretroviral treatment.

State leaders have also made headlines shaking hands and chatting with AIDS patients, trying to remove the social stigma attached to the disease.

But public fear and ignorance remain strong and the government continues to be suspicious of volunteers and non-governmental organizations trying to help spread AIDS awareness.

Increasing social mobility and 25 years of economic reforms have also added extra difficulties -- 120 million of the rural population have swarmed into cities looking for work and drug abuse and prostitution have flourished.

Almost three-quarters of Sudanese youth are sexually active, but fewer than a tenth know how to use condoms, posing a serious threat that HIV and AIDS will spread in the country, a U.N. official said on Monday.

Sudan has a relatively low incidence of HIV/AIDS -- 1.6 percent of adults are infected with the disease and 1.3 percent of young people -- compared with sub-Saharan Africa where the rate of infection in some countries is as high as 10 percent.

But Musa Bugungu, the Sudan chief of UNAIDS, fears that could change because of shifting mores among younger people, which are bumping up against religion and old stigmas.

Sudan implements Islamic sharia law and extra-marital sex is taboo. Under a January peace deal sharia has been lifted in the south, but is still applied in the north and the capital, where many Christians also live.

Three-quarters of Sudanese aged 19-25 are having sex, according to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, but few know how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases.

"There is sex outside of marriage and the issue will be of the next five to 10 years," Bugungu said. UNICEF says HIV prevalence among pregnant women is 2 percent to 3 percent, although more analysis needs to be done.

But analysis can be difficult because the stigma against those with the virus is so great it stops people taking tests, he said.

"Unfortunately the stigma is high -- (people) cannot disclose their status simply because they fear the community will go against them," he told reporters.

People had been forced to leave their homes, were thrown out of school and even the offices next to the UNAIDS office had complained about their presence, he said, fearing infection from the disease and the lease was almost not renewed.

The stigma ran through all classes of society, Bugungu said and could only be prevented with information campaigns.

Outside the capital, however, radio and television are not common, so information is carried through schools and religious institutions. He said religious leaders were committed to help stop the spread of AIDS, but they would not advocate the use of condoms.

"They will not promote it because they look at it as if they were promoting adultery."

He said the ministry of education had prepared a curriculum of AIDS awareness but did not have the $170,000 it needed to implement the plan in Sudanese schools.

WAR AND AIDS

While the United Nations has identified a risk among Sudan's youth, it also sees problems as those displaced by 20 years of civil war return home in the south of the country, and in Darfur where large numbers of refugees live in crowded compounds without access to HIV health services or education.

"With the peace definitely there is going to be extra population movement," he said of the end of the north/south conflict.

"You can see that there is a potential danger there."

He said many displaced population would return home in the south, as would demobilized soldiers and without proper access to information or healthcare in the devastated south, the risk of the spread of AIDS was high.

He said the norms of society were destroyed within displaced populations which made them vulnerable.

"The younger generation can go and become prostitutes to get more money ... in such a situation ... rape and so forth can happen and access to condoms and other protective measures are not there," he said.

Aid workers and refugees in Darfur have said rape is widespread in the camps in Darfur and witnesses say mass rape occurred during the height of the 2-1/2 year rebellion there.

The government admits that rape happens in Darfur but contests the extent of the problem.

Every minute of every day a child dies of AIDS but only 5 percent of those infected have access to life-preserving drugs, UNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund, said on Tuesday in launching a new campaign.

Appealing for more funds for children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF, hoped the world would spend $33 billion over the next five years from existing commitments and additional funds.

"Nearly 25 years into the pandemic, this very visible disease continues to have an invisible face and that is the face of the child," Veneman told a news conference on the eve of the campaign, "Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS."

"A whole generation of young people today has never known a world free of HIV and AIDS," she said. "It is a disease that has redefined their childhood forcing them to grow up alone too fast, or sadly sometimes not at all.

The campaign, which includes Dr. Peter Piot, the head of UNAIDS, the U.N. coordinating group, aims at treating children with antiretroviral drugs and preventing pregnant women from transmitting the virus.

More than 39 million people, most of them in Africa, are living with the disease, despite $8 billion in anticipated spending this year, Piot said earlier this year. He said only 12 percent of adults and children who needed treatment were getting it.

While children in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for more than 85 percent of all youngsters under 15 living with the disease, the Middle East was still in denial, said Peter McDermott, head of UNICEF's HIV/AIDS section.

But he said Djibouti and Iran were taking the lead in combating the pandemic and that the campaign would be launched at an upcoming Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco.

Brazil, which has the most successful anti-AIDS program among developing nations, partly because of its production of generic drugs, was sharing its expertise and providing drugs to other nations, he said.

Veneman added that countries should follow the example of Ireland, which just announced it would dedicate to children 20 percent of the funds it was contributing to global AIDS campaigns.

The stories of deprived children are legion. On her way to school in Lesotho, Reitumetse Phooko passes a boy pushing his father to the AIDS clinic in a wheelbarrow because he is too ill to walk, she told Reuters in London.

The boy is just 7 years old and he has already lost his mother to the disease that has deprived 15 million children of one or both parents. There is no one to help him.

"It makes me realize that I am really very fortunate to be able to go to school while some other children are not able to because they have to take care of their parents and there is a high risk of them getting the infection too," the 13-year-old AIDS activist said.

(Additional reporting by Paul Majendie in London)

The spread of HIV-AIDS threatens to wipe out some South Pacific nations, the head of the UN Children's Fund New Zealand office warned.

While a great deal of discussion focused on the impact of the disease in Africa, not much attention has been paid to the small island nations, UNICEF New Zealand executive director Dennis McKinlay told the opening of a Pan Pacific Regional HIV-AIDS conference.

The conference coincides with the launch of a global UN campaign to focus attention on the HIV-AIDS pandemic.

"The impact of an accelerated HIV infection rate in the South Pacific could annihilate all the development achievements in the last 30 years and it will be children and young people who suffer the greatest impact," McKinlay told the 450 delegates.

"Whereas a great deal of discussion has focused on the impact of HIV-AIDS in Africa, not much attention has been paid to small island nations such as the South Pacific, where a rapid HIV epidemic could jeopardize the very survival of peoples, languages and nations."

He said Pacific islanders need to realize the disease threatens their children's future.

"The good news is that the South Pacific is one of the last places on earth where we can have a positive impact in slowing the spread of AIDS, but that window is closing fast."

Gillian Mellsop, head of UNICEF, South Pacific, said prevention was the key to stopping an HIV-AIDSs catastrophe in the region.

"A major cause for alarm is that the majority of new infections occurring among young adults are among women, threatening to lead to more generalized epidemics," she said.

Though data was limited, 1,028 HIV cases have been reported in the Pacific Island countries excluding Papua New Guinea, where the UN estimates 40,000 people live with the virus.

Mellsop said HIV-AIDS was under-reported because of stigma, lack of confidentiality and lack of testing sites.

To gain a clearer picture the World Health Organisation recommended multiplying the total number of reported cases of HIV and AIDS by between 10 and 30.

Using this formula several island nations -- including the holiday destination of Fiji -- would be very close to a generalised epidemic, she said.

Swab the inside of your mouth. Put that swab into a vial of test fluid, and 20 minutes later you'll learn whether you're infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

The OraQuick Advance test is already widely available in health clinics and doctors' offices. The Food and Drug Administration is considering permitting it to be sold over the counter.

Supporters of home kits say they will spur more people to get tested and get treatment sooner if infected. However, concerns have been raised about whether a doctor or counselor should be nearby when people find out they are HIV-positive.

If approved, the test would become the first FDA-approved test that a person can take without the presence of a health care worker, or the requirement of mailing a sample to a lab.

The maker, OraSure Technology of Bethlehem, Pa., has not decided how much it will charge consumers for the kit, said Ron Spair, the company's chief financial officer. The company sells the kits for between $12 and $17 to clinics and doctors, he said.

The test is accurate more than 99 percent of the time, Spair said. Still, a positive result from the test should be confirmed through an additional test by doctors or public health officials, he said.

To take the test, a person swabs the inside of his mouth, between his cheek and gum, picking up not saliva but cells lining the mouth. The user then inserts the swab into a vial of fluid that comes with the kit. Twenty minutes later, an indicator will light up if the test detects the presence of HIV-1 or HIV-2 antibodies.

Those antibodies become present in the body several weeks after a person acquires HIV; the test will not detect the virus if it was more recently acquired.

On Nov. 3, FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee, will consider whether to recommend the product for over-the-counter sales. The FDA has the final say; it usually follows the advice of its advisory committees.

FDA briefing documents posted on the Internet said these kits could lead to more people knowing whether they have HIV, which could mean earlier treatment of the infection. People afraid or unwilling to take the test, particularly those without any symptoms, may more readily test themselves with a kit they can use privately.

"Knowing your status is critically important," Spair said. "We want to provide that opportunity to the broadest number of people possible."

But the documents also note concerns about someone learning they probably have HIV when they are alone, with no health professional or counselor nearby.

The kits are a good idea, said Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS. He said he doubts they will be as popular as at-home pregnancy test kits, suggesting most people who want an HIV test would prefer to be with a doctor. Their use may also depend on their price.

"Overall, I would say they are a step forward," he said. "Anything that helps more people learn their status is a good thing."

But the discovery one has HIV is "potentially traumatic," he said.

"There have got to be safeguards built in so they can get all the support they need," he said.

Spair said the company would work with FDA to develop instructions with the kit for someone who receives a positive result. He said he expects a telephone number and a web site address would be part of those instructions.

"We, together with the FDA, want to make sure that the infrastructure is in place so that folks on a 24-7 basis have access to counseling," he said.

Some companies market unapproved HIV tests for home use; the FDA says it is impossible to know if they are reliable.

One test, made by Home Access Health Corp., is approved for sale in the United States by the FDA. People taking this test must take a sample from themselves and mail it to a lab for testing.

About 1 million people in the United States are believed to have HIV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates nearly 300,000 people have the virus but don't know it.