Microsoft boss, Mr Bill Gates today pledged $100 million (£68 million) to help develop a vaccine for AIDS which scientists believe should be ready within 10 years.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it was providing the "challenge grant" to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) in a bid to encourage other backers.
The IAVI is seeking $550 million to fund its development work through 2007, which includes trials of a new vaccine in Kenya, the first to target the "A" strain of the HIV virus prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.
"It is clear that a widely accessible preventive vaccine is the best hope for ending this pandemic," IAVI head Mr Seth Berkley said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
Recent scientific advances made it likely a vaccine of at least limited efficacy would be ready within a decade, he added.
Berkley's group - which is committed to ensuring any AIDS vaccine is made available to developing countries at a reasonable price - has now received commitments totalling $230 million, including two previous gifts from the Gates foundation totalling $26.5 million.
Reuters