Donors to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were meeting Thursday in Germany, with the fund hoping to raise as much as US$8 billion (¤5.7 billion) to fight the diseases over the next three years, according to AP. Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently chairs the Group of Eight industrial powers, opened the one-day conference in Berlin, which brings together about 30 donors _ governments and organizations. The Global Fund said it expected initial commitments of between US$7 billion and US$8 billion (¤5 billion and ¤5.7 billion) to finance the fight against the three diseases between 2008 and 2010. It has estimated that it needs funding totaling between US$12 billion and US$18 billion (¤8.5 billion and ¤12.7 billion) over that period. «The success of the donor meeting will determine whether the world community has any realistic chance of meeting the targets it has set to reduce the impact of these diseases,» the Global Fund said in a statement. It noted that G-8 leaders have committed themselves to get as close as possible to universal access to AIDS prevention and treatment by 2010, while the United Nations hopes to halve the numbers of people infected with TB and killed by malaria by 2015. The Global Fund was an initiative conceived by the world's richest governments at the 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy, where they pledged to step up funding to fight HIV/AIDS and other global epidemics. The fund, a public-private partnership, says it currently provides 20 percent of international financing for programs against AIDS and two-thirds of financing for programs against tuberculosis and malaria. Merkel praised the fund's work as «effective and innovative,» and urged public and private donors to help secure the fund's long-term financing. «Accepting responsibility does not mean just giving promises,» she said. Before the conference, Germany on Wednesday forgave ¤50 million (US$70 million) in Indonesian debt under an agreement that will see Jakarta contribute half of that sum to projects under the Global Fund in Indonesia.
