Up to $9 billion is needed to ensure that half of the six million people in developing countries needing treatment for HIV can get it by 2005, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO campaign Three by Five, meaning "3 million by 2005", is to be launched in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 1st, World Aids Day.
Currently, only 5 per cent - or some 300,000 sufferers - have access to the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that prolong life and control the disease, Mr Paulo Roberto Teixeira, head of the WHO's anti-AIDS programme, said today.
"We are already late. We cannot go on waiting for social and economic change in developing countries to tackle this problem," said Mr Teixeira, hailed as the mastermind of Brazil's campaign against HIV and AIDS.
"Our eventual aim is that some day there will be free and universal access to ARV for everyone suffering from HIV and AIDS," he added.
Also taking part in the two-year programme will be other international agencies and non-governmental organisations and probably major drug manufacturing companies.
"We will need funding from all sources totalling from seven to nine billion dollars for the programme. The WHO alone will need an extra $200 million in 2004 and 2005 to support its part of the programme."