Botswana President Festus Mogae has urged Africa to usher in good governance and tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic on a "war footing" if it wanted to catch up with the rest of the world.
The President was speaking at a five-day global conference of civil society activists currently underway in the capital, Gaborone.
He warned that "if good governance holds enormous promise for the future growth and prosperity of our continent, the scourge of HIV/AIDS has the potential to undermine everything we are trying to do".
Mogae was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying: "The HIV/AIDS pandemic threatens to roll back many of the developmental gains that have been realised in recent decades and represents by far the greatest challenge confronting much of Africa."
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