GERMANY: The German government has denied claims by U2 singer Bono that it is blocking EU funding to fight the AIDS epidemic, writes Derek Scally from Berlin.
The Frankfurter Rundschau published a strongly-worded open letter from the singer to Chancellor Schröder, calling the population of Western Europe "accomplices" in "genocide".
"I'm not writing to you as a rock star with a favour. When 7,000 Africans die each day of AIDS it's no favour, it's an emergency," said Bono.
He accused Germany of belonging to a "small group of countries" blocking greater spending on AIDS research. A spokeswoman for the German government said Bono's claims were "simply wrong".
"All claims that the present government is not doing enough in the fight against AIDS do not correspond to reality," she said. Berlin had recently doubled its pledge to the international fund to €200 million until 2007.
The open letter came as the 14th international AIDS conference took place in Paris to highlight the on-going work of projects financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, set up last year, and to raise funds for treatment and medical research.
The conference ended in controversy with AIDS activists and doctors complaining that Western European governments made no firm funding commitments to the Global Fund.
Germany, which has so far contributed €50 million to the fund, will donate €38 million next year, before gradually increasing its contribution over the following three years.
However, Doctors Without Frontiers said the €1 billion pledge from the EU will only become reality if Germany contributes more to the fund.
Bono wrote: "I have spoken personally to Prime Minister Blair, as well as with President Chirac. Both have called on the EU and the Commission to give their approval to this decisive financial payment. But a small group of countries including Germany are blocking this agreement."
Bono told the Chancellor he was impressed by his "openness" at the 1999 World Economic Summit in Cologne and Mr Schröder's help in getting governments to write off debts of African countries. But"time is running out. AIDS waits for no one, not even for EU bureaucracy," wrote the singer. "For two decades we have stood there with our watering can while an entire continent goes up in flames."