Bush's Aids policy faces scrutiny

Some 20,000 health professionals are attending the conference

The US policy on Aids prevention has sparked fresh controversy on the second day of an international summit on the disease in the Thai capital Bangkok.

The Bush administration advocates sexual abstinence as the best way to stop the disease spreading.

Many scientists and activists, however, favour encouraging the use of condoms.

The US donates more funds to fight HIV than any other country, and is to spend $15bn over five years, but has strict rules on how the funds must be managed.

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Speaking in support of the US position, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told the summit that abstinence and loving relationships in marriage were even more crucial to fighting Aids than condoms.

"In some cultures sexual intercourse is so elaborate that condoms are a hindrance... Let the condom be used by people who cannot abstain, cannot be faithful, or are estranged," he said.

Uganda is one of the few nations to have turned a burgeoning Aids crisis into a relative success story, reversing the epidemic.

But activists and doctors say abstinence is only one part of an effective anti-Aids strategy.

"In an age where five million people are newly infected each year, and women and girls too often do not have the choice to abstain, an abstinence-until-marriage programme is not only irresponsible, it's really inhumane," said US Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, no more embarrassment and no more hiding behind a veil of apathy Kofi Annan Uganda turns back Aids tide

Steven Sinding, director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, told the BBC the Bush administration faced "enormous pressure" to play down the importance of condoms from its "own right wing".

The administration has a stipulation that 30% of US anti-Aids funds go through faith-based organisations.

"That means that upwards of 30% of money will go to organisations which actively denigrate condoms, or that don't advocate them," Mr Sinding said.

'Terrifying pattern'

The US has also been criticised for limiting the size of its delegation at the Bangkok summit.

Annan called for all world leaders to speak up about the disease

The BBC's Kylie Morris in Bangkok says the US has sent far fewer government employed scientists than in previous years - ostensibly for financial reasons.

However, she quotes insiders as saying the real reason is that the conference agenda is not conservative enough.

Opening the conference on Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that many countries were still not doing enough to stop the spread of Aids.

He called for all world leaders to speak up about the disease.

"There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, no more embarrassment and no more hiding behind a veil of apathy," he said.

Mr Annan was especially critical of the lack of help being given to women who, he said, were increasingly bearing the brunt of the disease.

Calling it a "terrifying pattern", Mr Annan said women now accounted for nearly half of all adult infections.