A pedestrian walks past a huge pair of lips on an anti-AIDS campaign poster by a cosmetics company in Seoul April 21, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The world will be running short of money in AIDS treatment in the coming years, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said here Friday.

The cost of AIDS treatment in 2007 reached 10 billion U.S dollars, and the money will be raised by at least 50 percent in 2010, Cesar Nunez, UNAIDS director for Latin America, told Xinhua ahead of the 17th World Conference on AIDS scheduled for Aug. 3-8 in this Mexican capital.

However, the world is expected to allocate less fund than what is needed to cover the treatment for AIDS-infected people in the coming years, Nunez said.

Latin America is one of the regions that have channeled more money than others into AIDS treatment, Nunez said, listing such examples as Brazil, which will spend some 525 million dollars to this regard, and Argentina, which is expected to pool over 80 million dollars.

Saying to cut the flow of new infection would be of great importance, Nunez called on governments around the world to earmark more resources in combating AIDS not only in treatment but also in preventive educations.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2,2008)