The European Union and a British-inspired plan for raising international bonds to increase development aid could make billions of dollars available for the fight against HIV/AIDS, a United Kingdom Africa All Party Parliamentary Group said in a report released on Monday, the Financial Times reports. According to U.N. statistics, Africa needs at least $7 billion annually for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs, as well as additional funds to care for AIDS orphans, provide food aid and implement other measures to fight the disease, the report said. The group called on Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to use its position in the European Union -- especially during its E.U. presidency next year -- to push for increased HIV/AIDS funding from the European Development Fund, in which an estimated $12 billion "lies unspent," the report says, according to the Times. The report also calls on the government to implement proposals next year that are aimed at generating an additional $50 billion each year in international aid money through capital markets; some of the money would go toward the fight against HIV/AIDS. The United Kingdom is the world's second largest HIV/AIDS bilateral donor after the United States (White, Financial Times, 6/7).

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