The conference of Western Pacific health officials in Manila was told that more than 1.5m Asians could be infected with HIV by the millennium.

Han Sant Tae, director of the WHO Western Pacific, said it was vital that countries in the region took action to curb the rise of sexually transmitted disease (STD).

The conference heard that the incidence of STDs was a "key contributor" to the transmission of HIV in many countries.

WHO officials estimate that there are 35m cases a year of STD infection in the region, which extends from Mongolia to Australia and French Polynesia.

STD infection

In several countries, up to 40% of sex workers have an STD infection and up to 5% of the general population is affected.

Around 10 times more people - some 700,000 - are currently infected with HIV than official figures suggest, public officials attending the meeting were told.

HIV is already a big health problem among heterosexuals in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea and among drug users in China and Vietnam.

WHO chief Gro Harlem Brundtland has promised extra support for the region to combat HIV.

Financial crisis

At a press conference on Tuesday, she also warned of the dangers to world health of the Asian financial crisis.

She feared health problems, exacerbated by rising poverty, could be exported around the world.

She added that the crisis was putting a squeeze on already limited health budgets in Asia and would mean families also had less money to spend on their health.

She called on international financial institutions to ensure their policies did not worsen health services.

"Be careful about affecting health services and institutions and basic primary health care because of the very negative consequences for the future," she said. Ms Brundtland also stated that many countries were not spending enough on health, citing an "ideal" of between 4 and 8% of GDP.