UN envoy hopeful of strengthened AIDS relief

This year could see the international community truly committed to helping those dying from HIV/AIDS in developing countries, a senior UN official said on Wednesday. Addressing hundreds of people at London's Metropolitan United Church, the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, said tremendous pressure was already being directed from the UK to other western nations. The London Free Press quoted him as saying: "It is possible that we could have some kind of breakthrough." Lewis said the hundreds of millions of dollars pledged by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in support of HIV/AIDS relief in Africa was a move he hoped other nations would soon follow.